Poster 08 · Tailoring
PMBOK® Guide — 7th Edition · §3
Key Takeaways
Ten things to remember about tailoring — the durable points that survive any exam or project.
- Every project is unique — so some degree of tailoring is always necessary.
- Aim for “just enough.” Too few processes omit key activities; too many are costly and wasteful.
- Tailoring is iterative and continuous, not a one-time setup at kickoff.
- It is driven by principles, organisational values and culture — and bounded by governance.
- Five aspects can be tailored: life cycle/approach, processes, engagement, tools, methods & artifacts.
- Five actions shape processes: add, modify, remove, blend, align.
- Four steps: select approach → tailor for organisation → tailor for project → improve continuously.
- Rigor scales with criticality, size, complexity and risk.
- All eight performance domains are tailored to the project’s context.
- Use diagnostics — retrospectives, lessons learned and warning signals — to know when to re-tailor.