1.4 Relationship To Other Management Disciplines

Much of the knowledge needed to manage projects is unique to project management (e.g., critical path analysis and work breakdown structures). However, the PMBOK does overlap other management disciplines as illustrated in Figure 1-2.
  General management encompasses planning, organizing, staffing, executing, and controlling the operations of an ongoing enterprise. General management also includes supporting disciplines such as law, strategic planning, logistics, and human resources management. The PMBOK overlaps or modifies general management in many areas—organizational behavior, financial forecasting, and planning techniques, to name just a few. Section 2.4 provides a more detailed discussion of general management.
  Application areas are categories of projects that have common elements significant in such projects but not needed or present in all projects. Application areas are usually defined in terms of:

   Funtional departaments and supporting disciplines, such as legal, production and inventory management, marketing, logistic and personnel.

   Technical elements, such as software development, pharmaceuticals, water and sanitation engineering or construction engineering.

   Management specializations, such as government contracting, community development or new product development.

   Industry groups, such as automotive, chemicals, agriculture or financial services.

  Appendix E includes a more detailed discussion of project management application areas.