The fifth edition of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (Project Management Institute, 2013) is out, and I’m here to welcome it with a huge bear hug. Call me nerdy, but I think this is the best edition yet. Why? Because stakeholder management has been put in a corner for far too long, and it’s great to see it treated as its own knowledge area, as it should be.

The PMBOK Guide’s introduction to Chapter 13, Project Stakeholder Management, as a new knowledge area is perhaps the most significant change between the fourth and fifth editions. Although stakeholder management was present in the fourth edition (primarily in the communications management knowledge area), creating a new chapter for it makes it as important as all of the other project management (PM) knowledge areas.

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