ALIGNMENT WITH the PMBOK^® Guide's Knowledge Areas

As we go through the nine habits, there are many similarities with project management principles and concepts established by PMI's A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). In particular, we notice a very clear alignment between the nine habits and the 10 core Knowledge Areas as identified in the fifth edition of the PMBOK® Guide, which we depict in Figure 3.

The PMBOK^® Guide – Fifth Edition defines a Knowledge Area as a complete set of activities that make up an area of specialization within project management. Many of these Knowledge Areas are used on projects most of the time, which is evident in our mapping against the nine habits as well. Each habit generally mapped to anywhere between three and six Knowledge Areas. However, our most interesting finding is that Project Communications Management and Project Stakeholder Management are the common thread among all nine habits. Let's explore these two Knowledge Areas a little further in the context of the nine habits.

Project Communications Management: Project leaders spend most of their time communicating with team members and other project stakeholders, from the onset of a project through execution and close out. Therefore, it only makes sense that each of the nine habits has an element of the processes that are required to ensure timely and appropriate planning and management of project information to the most relevant set of stakeholders. From communicating the project's vision and scope, to managing the constant flow of information, to motivating the team toward achieving the end goal, a project leader is always in communication mode.

Project Stakeholder Management: This mapping validates our hypothesis that deploying the nine habits can help a project manager become a project leader through the win-win-win approach. From empowering the core team, to celebrating wins with the organization, to keeping the customer apprised of all events, a project leader must continuously engage and inform the three primary sets of stakeholders. A project leader is first and foremost committed to managing stakeholders’ expectations.