Discovery projects
On June 7, 2026, the Project Management Institute (PMI) officially released the "Exploratory Project Standard" (EPS), a specialized framework designed for scientific research and high--risk hardware R&D. Moving beyond traditional performance indicators, the EPS introduces "Knowledge Yield" as the primary success metric, prioritizing the reduction of technical uncertainty over schedule adherence. The methodology utilizes "Discovery Sprints" to facilitate rapid hypothesis testing and "Adaptive Resource Buffers" to manage the inherent volatility of exploratory projects. This standard aims to bridge the gap between academic research and industrial product development by formalizing the management of "Unknown--Unknowns."