Suitability of PMBOK 6th edition for agile-developed IT Projects

Agile-developed IT projects, managed using agile project management, have been rapidly increasing in the last decade. To support this trend and increase usability for agile project managers, the PMI (Project Management Institute) organization included agile practices and an agile guideline appendix in the latest release of its project management framework, PMBOK Sixth Edition. This paper evaluates whether or not some of the PMBOK processes are suited to Scrum-developed agile IT projects and agile culture by comparing all PMBOK knowledge areas and agile Scrum practices in a project phase-oriented matrix. This comparison identifies five areas where an agile approach, like iterative development and self-managing teams, could cause conflict with traditional PMBOK processes. Moreover, it highlights complementary processes as well as PMBOK processes which are not covered by agile practices at all.