The PMBOK Guide and other best-practice frameworks provide considerable detail on schedule, budget and risk management techniques, but much less guidance on how to manage the people related challenges that threaten the execution of these plans and are the most commonly cited reasons for the failure of complex change initiatives.
Moreover, the nature of project management is changing. More and more project managers are now required to take responsibility for initiatives which have multiple stakeholders; team members drawn from multiple organizations and a need for work to be undertaken in a variety of different locations — often crossing national boundaries and sometimes spanning the globe. In the case of more complex projects with multi-organizational or international project teams, various types of cultural factors come into play, bringing about an even greater requirement for project managers to have good people-related skills.