Foundations · 15 min read
The 12 Principles & 8 Performance Domains
The value-delivery mindset that replaced the old process-group era. If a question feels ambiguous, the principle usually names the right answer.
The 12 principles
These are the ethical and behavioural spine of modern project management. Learn them as behaviours, not slogans.
- Be a diligent, respectful and caring steward.
- Create a collaborative project team environment.
- Effectively engage with stakeholders.
- Focus on value.
- Recognize, evaluate and respond to system interactions.
- Demonstrate leadership behaviours.
- Tailor based on context.
- Build quality into processes and deliverables.
- Navigate complexity.
- Optimize risk responses.
- Embrace adaptability and resiliency.
- Enable change to achieve the envisioned future state.
The 8 performance domains
These describe the areas where outcomes are produced, replacing the old knowledge-area framing.
- Stakeholders — productive relationships and alignment.
- Team — shared ownership, high performance, leadership at every level.
- Development Approach and Life Cycle — the right cadence for the work.
- Planning — organized, coordinated, deliberate progress.
- Project Work — efficient processes, physical resources, procurement, learning.
- Delivery — scope, quality, and business value realized.
- Measurement — reliable indicators that drive good decisions.
- Uncertainty — risk, ambiguity, complexity and volatility handled deliberately.
Key terms
- Stewardship
- Acting with integrity, care, trustworthiness and compliance on behalf of the organization.
- Tailoring
- Deliberately adapting approach, governance and artifacts to context, size, risk and complexity.
- Systems thinking
- Recognizing that a project sits inside interacting systems that change over time.