I am overdue for providing an update on how my work on The PMBOK v5 Guide is going. Well, it is on its way. The process is slow (sometimes painfully slow) but this is because of the number of people involved and the review process used. To give an idea, here is the plan for the next 6 months:

*  17 February – 20 March 2012: the exposure draft PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition will be open for comments

*  Late February 2012: team training for our adjudication processes

*  20 March 2012: our exposure draft period closes and comment adjudication begins

*  20 March – 28 April 2012: teams adjudicate exposure draft comments 

*  Early May – mid May 2012: core committee reconciles any comment adjudications that cut across chapters or where consensus has not yet been obtained

*  Mid May – early June 2012: appeals period for adjudication decisions; final draft QC and integration reviews

*  Early June – mid June 2012: appeals adjudication and resolution

*  Mid June – late June 2012: final draft cleanup and incorporation of QC comments

*  28 June 2012: core committee vote on finalized draft

The Exposure Draft process is a great mechanism for allowing members to review and comment on new material, but likely to generate a ton of review work for us. The Fourth Edition update, back in 2008 received over 4,400 comments during its exposure draft.  Since the membership of the PMI has increased significantly since 2008 we could be looking at close to double that figure.

That is a lot of suggested changes to review and I think March and April will be a busy time for me. Of course they will not arrive in one Word document, but I wonder what the PMBOK Guide would look like if we just did an “Accept All”? Right now it is the calm before the storm; I am going to make the most of it.