In version 7 of the PMBOK^® Guide, the process orientation (initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control completion) for managing projects was completely removed and replaced by twelve principles of project management.

It was expressed that it is not about process-oriented or adaptive, but about what is the right approach for the specific project and this can be the process-oriented approach in one case and the agile approach in another case. For the construction of a house, one will tend to come to process-oriented approaches, while for the transformation of a company, adaptive approaches are likely to be more suitable. For large projects or programs, mixed approaches will also be useful. The project in its environment and the resulting requirements ultimately determine which approaches to project management should be used. The twelve principles stand above this and apply universally.

In particular, many practitioners who are responsible for projects that are to be carried out in a process-oriented manner have missed an important and for them very important element for the implementation of process-oriented projects with the omission of the project processes and the five process groups.

This gap has now been closed with the Practice Guide: Process Groups. The Practice Guide contains practical and useful instructions for the process-oriented (waterfall) approach in project management and is therefore an excellent supplement to version 7 of the PMBOK^® Guide, which has been requested by many practitioners.

Members of PMI can download the Practice Guide free of charge: Practice Guide: Process Groups