---
reference_type: Principle
reference_id: P11
name: Embrace Adaptability and Resiliency
version: "1.0.0"
status: Deprecated
edition: PMBOK7
pmbok8_source: "PMBOK8 Standard §3.11 — Embrace Adaptability and Resiliency"
authority: PMI-derived
---

# P11 — Embrace Adaptability and Resiliency
**Type:** Principle
**PMBOK8 Source:** PMBOK8 Standard §3.11 — Embrace Adaptability and Resiliency
**Version:** 1.0.0

## Definition
PMBOK 8 Standard §3.11 recognizes that projects operate in environments that change — in requirements, stakeholder priorities, market conditions, organizational direction, technology, and risk — and that successful project teams build the capacity to respond. Adaptability is the ability to respond to changing conditions, new information, and evolving needs by modifying the approach, plan, or solution without losing alignment with the project's purpose. Resiliency is the complementary capacity to absorb disruption, setbacks, and unexpected events and recover without loss of purpose or team cohesion. Both qualities are built intentionally into the team culture, governance practices, delivery model, and planning approach. Adaptive and hybrid delivery models — agile, iterative, incremental — are institutional expressions of this principle applied at the methodology level.

## Key Characteristics
- **Adaptability as a designed capability:** Adaptability is not a reactive improvisation — it is a deliberately built-in capacity; planning horizons, review cadences, change processes, and backlog management are all structural enablers of adaptability (§3.11).
- **Resiliency as capacity, not just recovery:** Resiliency includes the ability to withstand shocks (psychological safety, redundant resources, robust risk responses) as well as the ability to recover from them — both dimensions must be proactively cultivated (§3.11).
- **Delivery approach as an expression of this principle:** Choosing iterative, agile, or hybrid delivery approaches is a primary way this principle is operationalized — these models embed frequent inspection and adaptation cycles by design (§3.11).
- **Continuous sensing of change:** Adaptive teams actively monitor the environment for signals that conditions have shifted — stakeholder feedback, market changes, technology updates, risk triggers — rather than waiting for disruption to force a response (§3.11).
- **Team and organizational dimensions:** Adaptability must exist at both the team level (skill flexibility, empowerment to change approach, psychological safety) and the organizational level (governance that permits adaptation, leadership support for change) (§3.11).
- **Balance with stability:** Adaptability without stability creates chaos; the principle requires maintaining clarity of purpose and benefit expectations even while adjusting how those outcomes are pursued (§3.11).

## Relationship to Other Principles
| Principle | Relationship |
|---|---|
| P07 — Tailor Based on Context | Tailoring is the practical mechanism for embedding adaptability — choosing adaptive or hybrid delivery approaches is a direct tailoring decision, and re-tailoring as conditions change is an expression of ongoing adaptability (§3.7, §3.11) |
| P09 — Navigate Complexity | Adaptability is the behavioral response to complexity — complex environments require continuous sense-making and adjustment that rigid approaches cannot provide (§3.9, §3.11) |
| P12 — Enable Change to Achieve the Envisioned Future State | Adaptability enables the project team to respond to change; the change management principle ensures the organization receiving the deliverable is similarly prepared for transition (§3.11, §3.12) |
| P10 — Optimize Risk Responses | Resiliency is reinforced by effective risk management — well-designed risk responses reduce the recovery burden when threats materialize; adaptive capacity is also a risk response strategy (§3.10, §3.11) |

## Artifact Connections
| Artifact | Connection |
|---|---|
| A06 — Tailoring Decision Record | Documents the adaptive delivery approach selected and the rationale — including how the cadence of inspection and adaptation is built into the delivery model |
| A19 — Risk Management Record | Resilience planning is embedded in risk responses — contingency reserves, fallback plans, and risk owner assignments build the recovery capacity that characterizes resilient projects |
| A12 — Change and Exception Decision Log | Captures adaptation in action — each approved change, exception, or course correction is a record of the project exercising its adaptive capacity in response to changed conditions |
| A29 — Change Readiness and Adoption Record | Assesses the organizational capacity to absorb change — a dimension of resiliency that determines whether the organization can sustain project outcomes after delivery |

## Skill Connections
| Skill ID | Skill Name | Connection |
|---|---|---|
| SKL-07-01 | Select and Tailor Delivery Approach | Directly applies this principle — selecting agile, iterative, or hybrid delivery models that embed adaptability into the project structure through sprint cycles, retrospectives, and backlog refinement |
| SKL-05-01 | Monitor and Control Project Work | Provides the sensing mechanism — performance data, variance analysis, and stakeholder feedback create the early warning signals that trigger adaptive responses before disruptions become crises |
| SKL-04-06 | Manage Stakeholder Engagement | Adaptive teams maintain active stakeholder dialogue to detect shifting expectations and priorities — stakeholder engagement is both an early-warning system and a source of adaptive direction |

## Questions to Ask in Practice
1. Does our delivery approach — planning horizon, review cadence, change process — genuinely support adaptation, or does our governance structure make course corrections prohibitively slow or costly?
2. When the project environment changes significantly (new stakeholder priorities, changed market conditions, new risks), do we have a defined process to reassess and adapt the approach, or do we continue executing an outdated plan?
3. Has the team built the psychological safety to surface problems and propose changes early, or do team members feel they must suppress concerns to maintain the appearance of progress?
4. What is our resilience profile — do we have contingency reserves, fallback options, and recovery plans that would allow us to absorb a significant disruption and continue?
5. Are organizational governance bodies and sponsors genuinely supportive of adaptive decisions, or do they impose stability requirements that prevent necessary adjustments?

*Authority: PMBOK8 Standard §3.11 — Embrace Adaptability and Resiliency · Source type: PMI-derived*
*Repository: https://github.com/fakhruldeen/PMOSkills*
