This question most often reflects lack of understanding about the PMBOK. PMBOK means a guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. The actual body of knowledge exists in all of us pratitioners. The PMBOK distills some of the more widely acknowledged best practices into a single reference point.
The PMBOK is not a methodology and doesn't claim to be a "how to" management script. In the early pages, the authors state that the PMBOK "...does not mean the knowledge described should always be applied uniformly to all projects." It's a framework, full of tools and techniques that can be applied with more or less rigor to situations that arise throughout a project. They use the term "tailoring" to encourage you to fit the bounty of PMBOK tools and techniques to your particular circumstances.
So how can PMBOK possibly be overkill? Obviously it can't, unless you don't tailor it to your needs.
Here are some of the benefits I've found in using the PMBOK:
- It provides a common language so project managers from different projects or geographies can have productive conversations, and so newly formed teams can quickly become productive
- It provides both art (being resilient to human situations) and science (following set protocols) to your project.
- It provides a number of best practices that can be applied to common and uncommon situations
- It provides techniques to frame a problem, to make it solvable.
- It imposes a preventive bias, to avoid problems rather than react to them in a fire-fighting mode
If you struggle getting your mind around the PMBOK, I'd suggest one of the many companion books that puts the PMBOK in more human and situational terms. Rita Mulcahy's materials are among my favorites. Heldman and Verzuh are among my favorite authors on the subject.
Give PMBOK a chance. Don't expect it to be your brains. View it as a project management tool belt. Pull out the right tool for the right situation.
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