Applicability-Compatibility Analysis of PMBOK Seventh Edition from the Perspective of the Construction Industry Distinctive Peculiarities

Abstract

Project management standards, like PMBOK, have had a considerable role in developing this field of knowledge and promoting it as a professional expertise in project-oriented industries, such as the construction industry. The latest version of PMBOK, seventh edition—2021, has been released with substantial changes, and the conventional process-based system has been converted to a performance-based approach. This study aimed to investigate the recent edition of PMBOK, to explore its application and adaptation regarding the specific characteristics of the construction industry. For this purpose, utilizing a hybrid methodology of text mining and survey method, at first, the content of the text was analyzed by software in combination with experts’ opinions. In a parallel survey, the distinctive attributes of the construction industry were investigated, and in the next step, the way that this sector can benefit from the emerging framework was examined. The results show the construction industry has special peculiarities in the form of four different project types with specific phases in typical lifecycle and reveal the potential applicability of performance domains in the construction projects and the compatibility of project management principles. This study is one of the first attempts to review the novel presented standard of PMBOK seventh edition and contributes to the present knowledge by analyzing the construction industry in relation to this issue.