Project Management Standards
Industry and government are faced with a number of project management standards.
Some of these are:
- International Organization for Standards (ISO)
- Association for Project Management Project Management Body of Knowledge (APM
BoK)
- Project Management Institute Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(GPMBOK)
- Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM)
- US Department of Defense Earned Value Management System (EVMS)
- Canadian Government Cost/Schedule Performance Management Standard (C/SPMS)
- CCTA Projects in a Controlled Environment (PRINCE)
Each standard is applied to particular national and international project management
undertakings. A rationalization of these management standards is needed if they
are to be used in a coherent and coordinated fashion.[2]
The PMI Global Standards Committee has been reviewing these standards in an
attempt to bring coherence to the project management scene. The activity and
governance of this PMI working group is posted to the PMI Web Site.[3]
We can look to a global network of Universities for research on project management
academic and competency requirements. The International Research Network on Organizing
by Projects (IRNOP) is a collegial association of academic institutions
that meets each year to consider project management research.
Work is in hand to develop the PMI GPMBOK in a number of directions and to
include project management principles. Other project management standards being
considered are:
- Competency Standards
- A Maturity Model
- GPMBOK Extensions
- Corporate Practice Standards.
The next revision of the Association for Project Management Body of Knowledge
(APM BoK) has started. The APM BoK is five years old and requires a review of
its contents. This work is to be carried out by Professor Peter Morris and the
Centre for Research in Project Management Team of the University of Manchester
in the United Kingdom.
This parallel development of Bodies of Knowledge (BOK's) is a valuable prospect
for the international project management community. Both the APM and PMI BOK's
are useful and for different purposes. The APM BOK, with its levels of experience
profiles, is a corporate or personal competency check list. The APM BoK identifies
40 key competencies for project management.
The PMI GPMBOK is a guide to the learning of generally accepted project management
practices. A training industry has grown up to explain the GPMBOK and each of
the eight generally accepted practices, described as knowledge areas.
A 1995 Special Issue of the International Journal of Project Management provided
particular viewpoints on the Project Management Bodies of Knowledge. As the Editor
of that Special Issue I wrote: "A project management practitioner of the
1990's cannot ignore the evolving project management standards of knowledge.
Such standards affect accreditation as a professional, and impact on all project
management undertakings ...".[4]
Theo Clarke of the Chicago Global Project Management Forum, wrote in the Association
for Project Management's February, 1998, issue of Project magazine: "There
was a clear consensus that global standards are a precursor to global certification
and that there is a need for a global accreditation body which identifies equivalence".
However, national interests will make it unlikely that an International Project
Management Body of Knowledge (IPMBOK) will be accepted. I see national organizations
continuing to develop particular standards, call them BOK or whatever, that can
be used as a basis for national project management certification.
2. Project
Management Standards Web Sites http://www.pmforum.org/prof/standard.htm
3. Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge http://www.pmi.org/
4. Special Issue on the PMBOK - International Journal of
Project Management, 1995
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