PMBOK® Guide, a Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, also known as “the Bible of Project Management “, has been four years away from the sixth edition. The PMI (Project Management Institute) launched its seventh edition in July 2021. Gathering one hundred PMPs here in Taiwan collaborate for translating into the Traditional Chinese version of PMBOK® which was completed in place and will be launched in October!
In response to changes in project management practices, the content structure of the seventh edition of PMBOK has been fully renovated.
International Data Corporation (IDC) released “IDC Future Scope: Worldwide Global Digital Transformation Forecast 2021 Predictions ” which revealed the prediction that “by 2023, 60% of leaders in G2000 organizations will have shifted their management orientation from processes to outcomes, establishing more agile, innovative, and empathetic operating models.” PMI will also carry out “self-destructive innovation” in 2021 in response to practical needs. The seventh edition has undergone content and structure revisions. The differences are as follows:
1. Add in Systems Thinking to improve the holistic view of the PM, grasp the dynamic changes of the project and have a solution context to reduce uncertainty.
2. The value delivery is prioritized over the outcome. The 12 principles newly added allow PM to plan and execute the project that follows the principles guidelines and tailors it based on the project requirements and environmental changes.
3. The ten Knowledge Areas were transformed into eight Project Performance Domains. In addition, the processes and input, tools and technology and output (ITTO) corresponding to the original ten knowledge areas became independent and added more theoretical tools as well as integrated into a chapter (models, methods, and artifacts) which is convenient for readers to learn and adapt for use.
4. New add the digitized and dynamic PMIStandard+ online interactive platform for project management knowledge. The PMIStandard+ platform retains the ITTO of the sixth edition. Project management practitioners can find suitable practical methods and tools according to industry category, project characteristics, and other screening conditions. The new project management knowledge content will continue to be added in the future so that the knowledge body system will continue to improve and be up to date.
Nearly perfect volunteers team and translation quality of PMBOK in Traditional Chinese Version.
Traditional Chinese version of PMBOK is not only a translation work but also a special project to help Taiwan PMP grow together, cast wisdom, temper the text and bring high-quality epic masterpieces to the Chinese project management circle and the translation industry.
The traditional Chinese version of PMBOK was translated by a agile team of 100 volunteers with PMP licenses. Edward Dai, deputy general manager of the Technical R&D Group of iPASS Corporation and a member of the PMP reviewer for the traditional Chinese version, said “One person may be able to translate the same high-quality traditional Chinese version of PMBOK V7 in 100 days but 100 independent individuals can complete the PMBOK together in 100 days that means the Traditional Chinese version of V7 has far surpassed the matter of “translation”. It is that 100 independent individuals have the same belief & mission who are willing to follow the same set of rules for the same goal regardless of group & each self, caring of each other, complement of each other, tolerance & respect and selfless sharing. ”
“A near-perfect self-organizing team can be called a model of agile team.” PMI-TW Chairman William Chen praised this translation volunteers team for being able to break through the team storm in less than three months and complete it faster than the sixth edition. The high-quality translation of the “Project Management Bible” has become his best graduation work (Note: Chairman William Chen will resign as the chairman of PMI-TW in December 2021.)
The 4 steps to build an efficient and agile translation team: recruitment and selection, joint training, parallel review and making good use of the platform.
How can a 100-person virtual team that more than 80% of the members have not met before, in less than one month the team quickly break through the team formation period and storm period, get on the right track & quickly enter the style, and come to a perfect ending in less than three months? With 8 years of experience, Mr. Roger Chou , the Product Owner who led and planned a team of translation volunteers for 8 masterpieces of foreign Bible-level works. He obtained a doctorate degree from the Department of Business Management of Sun Yat-sen University in September this year, and he achieved this goal within a minimum limit in PhD program 3 years through project management methodology. Mr. Roger Chou answered for us:
The first step for success is to find the right person to get on the car to ensure basic quality.
Well begun is half done. 100 volunteers for the seventh edition are recruited from the Internet, social communities of project management and give priority to half of the quota reserved for the translation volunteers of the sixth edition in 2017 (note: the sixth edition is already a 100% virtual team). In addition, the translation volunteers number of TOEIC 800 has doubled from about 30 persons to 60 persons from the sixth edition. There are 20 members with over TOEIC 900 or with translation work experience of the integration team responsible for cross-group review and proofreading to ensure a certain translation quality.
The second step for success is to start a book club to quickly upgrade your brain storm and team understanding.
Volunteers have different years of PMP admission, translation experience and professional competence. Before the translation kick-off, Dr. Roger Chou arranged a number of online reading clubs to warm up including reading clubs for the sixth and seventh editions, lectures on translation skills and agile team operation education training.
In the PMBOK book club, group members need to read chapters and present to the whole group members. This makes the team quickly enter the formation and storm period. In addition, the volunteer team is a self-organizing agile team. The review committee of the respected group is not a client who is superior or the final reviewers but is more like a coach who accompanies the group’s growth. The teachers spent a lot of time with the group in deliberating the wording and layout design, correcting mistakes, communicating how to design the content and making it easier for the audience to understand as well as making everyone more rapid progress from the practice, multiple exchanges and discussions.
The third step for success is to make good use of digital platform tools to improve communication transparency and task enthusiasm
The 2 volunteers JP Peng and Cadmus Lin have built and managed three online platform tools to the project team in order to allow volunteers to acquire the required information and change & communicate the information during translation, with the result of the forecast and the trees and through a transparent and easy-to-understand digital platform resulted in continuing to optimize and delivering high quality works.
Tools include:
1. Use Google files to control the scope and version of translated chapters;
2. Online interactive whiteboard platform Miro;
3. Project progress and information integration website.
First, JP Peng splits up the translated chapters and establishes a link for viewing the version for easy access by group volunteers. Then let the members enter the Kanban board on the Miro line, claim tasks in pairs and see the progress of their group partners and other groups on the board. When team members can easily grasp their own work progress, they can also clearly see the delay progress and partners who need support and extend a helping hand at the right time to reduce idle waiting time.
Each group’s pre-project reading meetings, project translation progress and various activity results records are organized and managed by JP Peng on the project website. Volunteers can easily access and fully grasp the project information and the full picture.
The fourth step for success is to use annotations and demo meetings to sublimate the review to “collective intelligence”.
(Translation review flowchart: Peer>Group QA> FQA> Review Committee> Integration Team.)
At each stage QA gatekeepers and review committee teachers are responsible for using the Google Doc annotation message function to propose different translation proposals for the correctness and legibility of Chinese and English not directly delete changes during the task. During the group demo meeting, the three review committee teachers, the group QA and FQA fully stated their views and then consensus decision was taken to determine the result. Instead of letting the later reviewers directly cut off the content translated by the predecessors and re-train them, this can avoid one word room and achieve the collective intelligence of the translated text.
The 7 edition of the traditional Chinese version of PMBOK is launched. It is not only a translation work that condenses the wisdom of Taiwan’s project management elites but also a well-planned & fully utilized online digital tools to break through the physical barriers of the Covid-19 epidemic, team formation and rapid progress. This makes a wonderful practical case.