Resources domain — team formation and dynamics

The Resources Performance Domain covers people and physical resources: acquiring them, developing them, and managing how they work together. PMBOK still references Bruce Tuckman's classic team-development stages: forming → storming → norming → performing → adjourning. Forming = polite and tentative; storming = conflict surfaces; norming = team agrees on how to work; performing = high productivity; adjourning = wrap up.

Conflict-resolution styles PMI explicitly tests: collaborate / problem-solve (consider multiple viewpoints to reach consensus — PMI's preferred default), compromise / reconcile (give-and-take partial satisfaction — sometimes appropriate), force / direct (one party wins, others lose — last resort), smooth / accommodate (downplay differences — rarely the right answer), withdraw / avoid (retreat or postpone — only when the issue is genuinely minor).

On the exam, default to collaborate / problem-solve unless the scenario explicitly rules it out (e.g., immediate safety risk → force, or trivial side issue → withdraw). Watch for scenarios where the PM is conflict-averse and just smooths over a real disagreement — PMI penalises that.