PMP Exam 2021 vs 2026: Everything That's Changing (and What Isn't)
Two Active Exams, One Decision
If you're studying for the PMP right now, you face a fork in the road: which Exam Content Outline (ECO) governs your exam?
As of this writing, PMI has two active content outlines:
- ECO 2021–2026: in effect from January 2021 through June 2026
- ECO 2026: effective July 1, 2026 onward
Your answer depends entirely on your exam date. If you test before July 2026, you're on the current outline. If you test July 2026 or later, you're on the new one. This isn't a soft rollover — the question banks, task weightings, and domain structures are meaningfully different.
Here's everything you need to know.
Side-by-Side: The High-Level Numbers
| ECO 2021–2026 | ECO 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Effective | Jan 2021 – Jun 2026 | July 2026+ |
| Questions | 180 | 170 |
| Time | 240 minutes | ~230 minutes |
| Domains | 3 | 3 |
| Tasks | 35 | 26 |
| People weight | 42% | 33% |
| Process weight | 50% | 41% |
| Business Environment weight | 8% | 26% |
The headline change: Business Environment goes from 8% to 26% — a 225% increase in exam weight. That is not a rounding error. It's the single biggest structural shift between the two outlines.
Domain-by-Domain Breakdown
People Domain
ECO 2021: 42% (≈76 questions) ECO 2026: 33% (≈56 questions)
The People domain shrinks by 9 percentage points in the 2026 outline — about 20 fewer questions. In absolute terms, this is the domain that loses the most ground.
What's in it (2021): The 2021 People domain covers 14 task statements organized around team leadership, conflict resolution, stakeholder engagement, and training. The emphasis is on situational leadership — how you adapt your style to the team and context.
What's in it (2026): The 2026 People domain consolidates to fewer task statements but adds explicit coverage of:
- Vision and Leadership (20–30% of the domain)
- Conflict and Stakeholder Management (35–45%)
- Communication and Knowledge Transfer (25–35%)
The shift is subtle but meaningful: the 2026 outline places greater weight on communication frameworks and knowledge transfer mechanisms — topics that were lighter in the 2021 version. Questions here are more likely to involve distributed teams, asynchronous communication, and hybrid org structures.
Study implication: If your exam is post-July 2026, don't abandon People domain prep — but shift more energy from general leadership scenarios toward communication strategies and stakeholder alignment frameworks.
Process Domain
ECO 2021: 50% (≈90 questions) ECO 2026: 41% (≈70 questions)
Process remains the largest domain under both outlines, but drops 9 points. This is still where the exam is won or lost.
What's in it (2021): The 2021 Process domain has 13 task statements covering the full delivery lifecycle: planning, scheduling, budgeting, risk, quality, procurement, stakeholder communication, and closure. It leans heavily on predictive (Waterfall) and agile hybrid scenarios.
What's in it (2026): The 2026 Process domain reorganizes into four content areas:
- Planning and Delivery (25–35%)
- Resource, Procurement, and Finance (20–30%)
- Quality, Schedule, and Status (25–35%)
- Project Closure (8–15%)
Two things stand out in the 2026 version. First, Project Closure gets its own content area — signaling that PMI wants you to demonstrate mastery of close-out processes, lessons learned, and benefits realization, not just treat them as afterthoughts. Second, agile and hybrid delivery methods are woven more explicitly into delivery and quality questions rather than treated as a separate track.
Study implication: The Process domain is still the backbone of the exam. If your exam is post-July 2026, give extra attention to procurement/finance fundamentals and close-out processes — both are weighted areas that candidates often underinvest in.
Business Environment Domain
ECO 2021: 8% (≈14 questions) ECO 2026: 26% (≈44 questions)
This is the big story of the 2026 update.
What's in it (2021): The 2021 Business Environment domain is thin by design — just 8 task statements split between compliance/benefits realization and organizational change. Most candidates deprioritize it, and rationally so: 14 questions out of 180 means it has minimal exam impact.
What's in it (2026): The 2026 Business Environment domain has three fully fleshed-out content areas:
- Governance and Compliance (20–30%)
- Change, Issues, and Risk Management (35–45%)
- Continuous Improvement and Adaptation (25–35%)
The new domain is a substantive section in its own right. Change and Issues management now includes AI tools, sustainability considerations, and adaptive organizational responses — areas that were barely present in the 2021 ECO. The Continuous Improvement area reflects a strong push toward Lean, retrospective culture, and value delivery over output delivery.
Study implication: If you're on the 2026 outline, treat Business Environment as a major domain — not a bonus section. At 26%, it carries more weight than People under the new outline. This is the area where under-prepared candidates will lose the most ground.
Task Statement Count: 35 vs 26
The 2021 ECO has 35 task statements. The 2026 ECO has 26.
This doesn't mean the 2026 exam is easier — it means PMI consolidated related concepts and removed redundancy. Each 2026 task statement is broader, which means questions in the 2026 bank are more likely to integrate multiple concepts in a single scenario rather than isolating a single process.
Practically: the 2026 exam rewards synthesis over recall. You need to know how concepts connect, not just what they are.
What Didn't Change
Before you throw out your notes, here's what remained stable:
- The three-domain structure (People, Process, Business Environment)
- The scenario-based question format — no pure recall, always a situational context
- The hybrid emphasis — both predictive and agile/hybrid approaches are tested
- The core frameworks — PMBoK, Agile Practice Guide, and situational leadership models still underpin both exams
- The pass threshold — PMI doesn't publish a fixed cut score, but the passing standard is calibrated to the same level of professional competency
Which Outline Should You Study?
Test before July 2026: Study ECO 2021. Don't add 2026 content — it won't appear on your exam and it'll dilute your focus.
Test July 2026 or later: Study ECO 2026 exclusively. The question banks are different. The task weightings are different. You're sitting a different exam.
Haven't scheduled yet: If you can sit before July 2026, that's one path. If you're more than a few months out, plan for 2026. Don't hedge by studying both — pick one and master it.
How GanttGrind Handles Both
GanttGrind covers both content outlines as separate tracks. When you practice, you select your content outline, and all sessions, mastery tracking, and full exam simulations are scoped to that outline's question bank and domain weights.
If you've already sat for the exam, upload your score report — every data point helps the prediction engine give more accurate guidance to the candidates who come after you.