Ten knowledge areas, one project system
WORKSPACE.PM speaks PMBOK natively: the five process groups as a project pipeline, the ten knowledge areas as specialised modules - from the project charter through network schedule, earned value and risk register to status-report approval for your PMO.
Where PMI/PMBOK sits on the spectrum
And which standards are its neighbours
PMI/PMBOK: process-oriented, across the whole lifecycle
The PMBOK Guide is not a fixed procedure but a tailorable standard - it spans from classic, plan-based work to adaptive elements. In WORKSPACE.PM this stays an and, not an or: the container concept lets each subproject run its own way of working, while process groups, gates and reporting form the shared bracket.
When the standard and the tool speak two languages
Four situations PMP-certified teams know from day-to-day projects
Certified in PMBOK, planned in silos
Your team knows the ten knowledge areas by heart - but the tool doesn't. So things get translated, shortened and left out.
Ten knowledge areas, ten places to look
Risks in Excel, schedule in MS Project, costs in the next spreadsheet, stakeholders in a third - and none of them talk to each other.
Earned value is assembled by hand at month-end
Planned value, earned value and actual cost are pulled together from several sources instead of emerging from the project data itself.
PMO reporting is manual labour
Traffic lights, dates and costs are copied together for every status report - and are out of date the moment they're finished.
From PMBOK knowledge area to concrete function
Six core areas of the standard, each with the tool that carries it - in the original vocabulary, without reinterpretation.
Process groups & knowledge areas
PMI describes every project through five process groups - from initiating to closing - and ten knowledge areas. Every activity sits at the intersection of both.
A project frame that carries both dimensions
The project pipeline structures the lifecycle into phases and quality gates, the container structure holds work packages and milestones - together they form the five process groups. The ten knowledge areas spread across specialised modules and come together in the project one-pager with 14 tiles and a health score.
Integration management
The first knowledge area holds the project together as a whole - from the project charter through the project management plan to integrated change control.
Charter, management plan and changes under control
The project charter grows out of framing conditions - urgency, importance, benefit and priority along with goal, risk and specifics lists - and names the sponsor, project manager, deputy and initiator. Every status change carries a confirmation comment and lands in the change history; change requests hold category, impact dimensions and an approver, and link to the affected risk together with its originating problem.
Schedule and sequence management
PMI plans dates through activities, dependencies and the critical path - and measures progress against a fixed schedule baseline.
Network schedule, critical path and schedule baseline
Activities link in four relationship types - finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, start-to-finish - with lead and lag. The network calculation delivers early and late start and finish dates, float and the critical path; the Gantt shows them as bars and activity nodes. Existing plans import from Microsoft Project, Primavera P6 or Asta Powerproject, and the baseline is fixed and compared against the actual plan.
Cost and value management
Costs are planned and booked per line item; project value is measured through earned value - planned value, earned value and actual cost at a cut-off date.
Cost items, budget warning and earned value
Every cost item carries a cost type with account number and direction, a distribution pattern - even, front-loaded or back-loaded - and a planned amount with dated actual bookings; personnel costs are calculated automatically from assignment and time tracking. Capex and opex are shown separately, and the container warns on budget overrun. The earned-value analysis records planned value, earned value and actual cost at a cut-off date and charts them on the dashboard.
Risk and quality management
PMI manages uncertainty in both directions - risks and opportunities - and secures results through defined quality approvals.
Response strategies, Monte-Carlo reserve and quality gates
The risk register scores gross and net on a 5×5 matrix and assigns each risk a response strategy: avoid, mitigate, transfer or accept. A Monte-Carlo simulation with PERT distribution and 10,000 iterations derives the contingency reserve as a P50, P80 or P90 value and adopts it as a cost item. Opportunities run as a mirror image with gross and net opportunity value. Named quality gates let approvers vote criterion by criterion before the final decision is made.
Stakeholder and communications management
PMI captures every stakeholder group systematically and plans who receives which information when - as the basis for reports and approvals.
Stakeholder register, communication matrix and report approval
The stakeholder register holds influence, attitude and conflict potential per group, along with expectations, expected behaviour and measures with an owner; the environment analysis places them in four strategy quadrants. The contacts register forms the communication matrix. Status reports run from the project manager to the PMO through three approval stages - draft, submitted, approved - and assess schedule, cost and performance; upcoming and overdue reports are reminded automatically.
Tailoring is built into PMBOK - and into the system
The PMBOK Guide requires tailoring the standard to the project. That's exactly what container building blocks do: each subproject activates only the knowledge areas it needs - full network and earned-value control in the engineering track, a lean board in the agile subproject. One standard, several ways of working, one reporting line.
Where PMI/PMBOK is at home
Project worlds and roles that benefit most from the standard
Frequently asked questions about PMI/PMBOK in WORKSPACE.PM
Which concrete tools carry the standard day to day
Yes. The five process groups are mapped by the project pipeline with phases and quality gates, the ten knowledge areas spread across specialised modules - from integration through schedule, cost and risk to stakeholder. The project one-pager brings them together with a health score on a single page. Your processes carry the standard, the system provides the structure.
The earned-value analysis records planned value, earned value and actual cost at a cut-off date and charts them on the dashboard. The cost basis comes from cost items with planned amounts and dated actual bookings, complemented by personnel costs calculated automatically from assignment and time tracking.
The risk register scores gross and net on a 5×5 matrix by PMI logic and assigns each risk a response strategy - avoid, mitigate, transfer or accept. A Monte-Carlo simulation with 10,000 iterations derives the contingency reserve as a P50, P80 or P90 value and adopts it directly as a cost item. Opportunities run as a mirror image with gross and net opportunity value.
Activities link in four relationship types with lead and lag; the network calculation delivers early and late start and finish dates, float and the critical path. The Gantt shows them as bars and activity nodes, and a baseline can be fixed and compared. Existing plans import from Microsoft Project, Primavera P6 or Asta Powerproject.
The stakeholder register captures influence, attitude, expectations and measures per group and places them in four strategy quadrants. The contacts register forms the communication matrix. Status reports run from the project manager to the PMO through three approval stages and assess schedule, cost and performance - upcoming and overdue reports are reminded automatically.
Yes. The PMBOK Guide is a tailorable standard, and the container concept implements exactly that: each subproject chooses its way of working, while process groups, gates and reporting form the bracket. A PMBOK-run project can lead agile subprojects, and lessons learned flow into the organisation's knowledge base at closing.
Related methods
When your organisation runs several standards
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