Bas de Baar posted about Derek Huether's post on Scrum being compatible with PMBOK. This confusion between methods, processes, and knowledge areas reemerges periodically.
Here's how is works. PMBOK is structured into Process Groups and Knowledge Areas. They are shown to the left. The PMBOK asserts that these components are the basis of successful project management. Setting aside for a moment the validity of that assertion, SCRUM lives in many of the elements of PMBOK.
Starting with the Process Group, Scrum obviously lives in the each of them. These groups describe what processes are needed to successfully complete the project.
You have to start the project. You have to have some method of planning the work. You need to execute this planned work to produce products or services. You need some means to control the work's progress the resources assigned to the work, and make changes in you plans when there are changes in the project. And when everything is done you need to close out the projects and reconcile all the activities you did.
Now the Knowledge Areas define what you need to know about to improve your chances of success on the project. They should appear obvious at anyone who has ever worked on a project. Integration means just that, how to we integrate all the people, processes, work effort, artifacts on this project? How do we define the scope of this work in ways that everyone can understand? How long will it take before we are finished? How much will it cost? What do we mean when we say Quality? How do we talk to each other and the customer? What impediments to progress are there? And finally how do we buy things for the project (if we need to)?
So Why Is There Continual Confusion?
I have a simple, possibly naive, and likely blunt answer...
Those in the agile software development method world haven't read, applied, and thought about PMBOK
They start speaking about the conflicts of PMBOK with Agile SOFTWARE development from their Agile SOFTWARE development point of view. Software Development is a Technical Solution process in the CMMI DEV V1.2 paradigm, where similar discussions abound. Software Development (SCRUM) is an Execution process in PMBOK.
If you're going to compare and contrast two documents, make sure you've read and understood both of them. It takes all the challenge out.
