The “Software Extension to The PMBOK Guide” is available for public review here. It is a PMI hosted site, but you do not need to be a PMI member to access the draft. This is the first full exposure of the draft. It was completed earlier in the year and sent to some subject matter experts for review, but has not been made publicly available before. So, if you have an interest in how the PMBOK Guide should be augmented/modified for software projects take a look and submit you comments.

As a parallel, the Extension to the PMBOK Guide for Construction, has been available for a number of years and it offers guidance to project managers in the construction business. The role of the Software Extension, is to fulfil a similar role, but this time for managers of software projects that often face changing requirements, evolving technologies, and bringing together divergent knowledge workers to collaborate on challenging problems. For these project environments the Software Extension describes a spectrum of Predictive, Adaptive and Agile Lifecycles that may be used and more people based, as opposed to process based, development strategies.

I know asking how the PMBOK Guide can best be changed for software projects will likely prompt some colourful suggestions, but that’s half the fun. We will have to review all the suggestion and having the odd passonate suggestion brightens up the review process. I once worked with a developer who used a copy of the PMBOK Guide to raise the level of his monitor to approximately the same height as his other monitor. When he heard I was working on the next version of the PMBOK Guide he said that he uses his copy every day, and it was indispensable, but could we add another 10-15 pages to the next version (so his monitors would be perfectly aligned).

So, please take a look, we really do value your feedback, both good and bad. The role of the Software Extension is to modify and extend the PMBOK Guide recommendations for project managers in the software industry. It will be published in mid/late 2013 with your feedback incorporated or politely passed over, as we see fit.