Introduction
A body of knowledge is the term that defines a range of practices, rules, or standards that are used by professionals in specific fields. The term under consideration refers to facts and practices that are supported by the results of research; to be included in a body of knowledge, certain rules or values are to be approved by authorities in specific fields. The BOKs used in the field of project management are the APM’s BOK and the PMBOK created in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Analysis
The BOKs used in the field of project management are the APM’s BOK and the PMBOK created in the United States and the United Kingdom. Nowadays, there is a debate about the necessity to use BOKs and the benefits that it involves. Despite the perceived advantages of BOKs, many researchers believe that this standardization can be detrimental to the success of some small-scale projects.
Continuing on the topic of the debate, there are numerous benefits of BOKs that are presented in modern literature as arguments proving their effectiveness. In particular, BOKs are believed to facilitate the distribution of knowledge pertaining to specific professions and, therefore, popularize the latter. This advantage is especially important with regard to commercialized professions. Also, BOKs allow standardizing common practices in the field to encourage collaboration between professional bodies in different countries. For instance, the PMBOK is available in eleven languages, and it is recognized globally. In addition, the use of BOKs allows improving working processes due to the specific way of how information is presented – prior to including something into BOKs, specialists ensure the consistency of information and the absence of unnecessary steps that require resources but do not produce significant results.
Despite these advantages, many researchers believe that the impact of BOKs on project management is rather harmful. In reference to disadvantages, it is often stated that BOKs do not reflect the existing research literature in an appropriate manner or do not consider limitations related to previous studies. Also, BOKs make knowledge less “flexible”, limiting the opportunity to use it in different contexts. Another significant disadvantage that is emphasized by many researchers is that formal BOKs sometimes fail to take into account the broader picture of the profession, omitting the strategic elements of knowledge.
The use of BOKs that have been mentioned can help to ensure the success of engineering projects because of BOKs present and explain baseline practices related to project management. Moreover, it is known that legal regulations related to procurement are among the most common challenges associated with construction and engineering projects. The use of popular BOKs designed in English-speaking countries allows project managers to mitigate the risks with the help of specific recommendations. For instance, PMBOK presents and assesses different procurement negotiation techniques that can be used to ensure the success of engineering projects and eliminate problems that can impede project realization.
Conclusion
The limitations of the two BOKs that have been mentioned have a bearing on the degree to which the delivery of engineering projects would be successful. The key limitations of the APM’s BOK and PMBOK are related to the complexity of recommendations – in fact, the recommendations provided in these sources are appropriate and effective when it comes to large engineering projects that involve the need to organize the work of enormous teams. At the same time, the delivery of smaller projects is a process that should include no extra steps and be simplified. BOKs do not present algorithms and approaches to project development that is to be strictly followed – instead, adjustment efforts are always required when it comes to nontypical projects.