Cover Page

A PROJECT
MANAGER’S
BOOK OF FORMS


Third Edition



A Companion to the PMBOK®Guide – Sixth Edition



Cynthia Snyder Dionisio















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Acknowledgments

It was an honor to have chaired the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition. My first thanks goes to John Zlockie, PMI Standards Manager, for letting me chair the Sixth Edition. I am so very grateful to Kristin Vitello, Standards Specialist extraordinaire, for being so wonderfully supportive during the entire process. The experience of chairing the Sixth Edition was so rich because of the amazing team of people with whom I worked. I was so honored to have the amazing Dr. David Hillson as my Vice Chair. I am very thankful for his sage guidance and warm friendship. My team was more than I could have hoped for: Mercedes Martinez Sanz, Alejandro Romero Torres, Larkland Brown, Pan Kao, Guy Schleffer, Lynda Bourne, and Gwen Whitman. Frank Parth was with us for a time and his contributions are appreciated. A special place is in our hearts for Michael J. Stratton, who made an incredible difference throughout his life to both the profession and the Sixth Edition. Mike, you are missed.

A huge thank you to my husband Dexter Dionisio for supporting me in the Sixth Edition and in all my writing endeavors. Your support means so much to me.

Thank you to Margaret Cummins. You are such a delight to work with. I always look forward to our times together. I feel so fortunate to work with the fabulous professionals Lauren Olesky, Kalli Schultea, Lauren Freestone, Kerstin Nasdeo, and all the wonderful folks at Wiley. I think the look, feel, and usability of the third edition of the Book of Forms will be such an improvement over previous editions. I appreciate the hard work on both the paper and electronic forms.

I appreciate Donn Greenberg, Barbara Walsh, Amy Goretsky, and Roberta Storer for the work you all do to support this book and the other publications we work on together. I am looking forward to the electronic spinoffs for the forms and I appreciate your support with that project!

Thank you to all the students, project managers, and others around the world who have purchased previous editions of this and my other books.

Introduction

A Project Manager’s Book of Forms is designed to be a companion to A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) – Sixth Edition. The purpose is to present the information from the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition in a set of forms so that project managers can readily apply the concepts and practices described in the PMBOK® Guide to their projects.

The PMBOK® Guide identifies that subset of the project management body of knowledge generally recognized as good practice. It does not describe how to apply those practices, nor does it provide a vehicle for transferring that knowledge into practice.

This Book of Forms will assist project managers in applying information presented in the PMBOK® Guide to project documentation. The Book of Forms does not teach project management concepts or describe how to apply project management techniques. Textbooks and classes can fulfill those needs. This book provides an easy way to apply good practices to projects.

NEW FOR THIS EDITION

There are several added features for this edition of the Book of Forms. Since one of the defining factors about projects is that they are unique, project managers must tailor the forms and reports to meet the needs of their individual projects. Some projects will require information in addition to what is presented in these forms; some will require less. For each form there is a section that suggests some things to consider for tailoring the form. These forms are presented in paper format and electronic versions to make them easy to adapt to the needs of specific projects. The electronic version is in PDF and .doc format. The .doc format is easy to tailor to suit your needs.

Another section describes the other forms that should be checked for alignment. For example, duration estimates should be aligned with relevant assumptions in the Assumption Log, information in activity attributes, and resource requirements.

Because agile practices are becoming common on projects, even on projects that have not adapted an agile development methodology, we have included a few agile forms. These are not mentioned in the PMBOK Guide – Sixth Edition, but we think they might be helpful.

AUDIENCE

This book is written specifically for project managers to help manage all aspects of the project. Those new to project management can use the forms as a guide in collecting and organizing project information. Experienced project managers can use the forms as a template so that they collect a set of consistent data on all projects. In essence, the forms save reinventing the wheel for each project.

A secondary audience is the manager of project managers or a project management office. Using the information in this book ensures a consistent approach to project documentation. Adopting these forms on an organizational level will enable a repeatable approach to project management.

ORGANIZATION

The forms are organized by Process Group: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. Within those Process Groups, the forms are arranged sequentially as presented in the PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition. Agile forms are after the closing forms in their own section.

Most form descriptions follow this format:

There have been some requests for completed samples of each form. Due to the unique nature of projects and because this book is meant to span all industries and be used by a wide audience, it is not practical to provide examples of completed forms. However, in this current edition we have provided a few samples of filled-out forms so you can see how they would look. These forms are available on the website listed below.

Not all forms will be needed on all projects. Use the forms you need, to the degree that you need them, to assist you in managing your projects.

For electronic copies of the forms, and to see the filled-out examples, go to http://www.wiley.com/go/bookofforms3e.