Project Based Problem Solving and Decision Making

Appendix: Using the PMBOK^® Guide

Decision-Making and the PMBOK^® Guide

Logical decision-making is an important part of all project management, and this is a necessity for all of the PMBOK^® Guide Domain Areas and Areas of Knowledge. The PMBOK^® Guide provides a reasonable roadmap for what must be done on typical projects.

The PMBOK^® Guide is extremely useful for helping us make informed decisions, especially with the identification of “inputs,” “tools and techniques,” and “outputs.” However, in situations involving time pressure, higher stakes, or increased ambiguities, project managers often use intuitive decision-making practices rather than structured approaches and generally arrive at a satisfactory course of action, possibly without weighing alternatives. Because of time constraints, decisions may have to be made with just partial information being available.

Yet even under these circumstances, people familiar with the PMBOK^® Guide can be expected to make better decisions than those unfamiliar with it. The PMBOK^® Guide does not and most likely cannot provide guidance on how to approach every possible problem that can exist and how to make every possible decision. But having some information on the PMBOK^® Guide is certainly better than having no information at all. While some structured approaches exist for decision-making, they are not applicable to every type of project problem.

Problem-Solving and the PMBOK^® Guide

The PMBOK^® Guide is an excellent document for learning ...