International Project Management Standards

If the task of optimizing activity arises, then the question of compliance with the norms arises by itself. These are the direct needs of a business that actively applies project management methods. The project manager, no less than others, is interested in confirming his professional experience in front of colleagues and employers. He wants to prove his knowledge and skills as a professional PM and get paid for them. In this regard, project management standards are very important. After all, based on them, you can carry out your labor activity and prove your own professionalism.

Standards

Standards are considered to be norms and samples of objects that are comparable with other such phenomena. Also, a standard can be called a document that indicates the established rules, norms and requirements that allow assessing compliance with them in labor activity. Only between the first and second definitions is there an important difference. The first corresponds to the ideal, while the second only contains recommendations on how to approach it.

Various design practices have been carried out in the world for more than half a century. Therefore, millions of procedures of this nature have been carried out, including those where unique solutions to various problems were used. In this connection, there was a need to systematize this process, its generalization and unification. Therefore, over time, it became a separate branch of management, where various methodologies and project management standards arose.

First, it was necessary to define the general terminology and concepts, so that later it was possible to obtain and generalize the requirements for the work and its quality. Various project management technologies were developed. Based on this, it is logical that there was a need to determine what qualities and skills are needed for a person who will be involved in project management, and what steps he must take to become a successful leader.

Types of standards

Thus, there was a need to create institutions that study management in this area. At first, everything was carried out at the national level, and then it went international. So, these institutions collected, accumulated and structured experience in order to understand how to manage the project so that it gives a specific result. To define project management standards, best practices were analyzed and synthesized. To accomplish this, two management components were used: objective and subjective. That is, individual projects and entire companies were considered together with the qualification requirements of project managers. Thus, methodological solutions emerged that allowed:

Definition and understanding of terminology, the subject of activity of this area and the role of all project participants.
Ensuring the development of specialists and management who practice activities and increase the results and effectiveness of the following projects.
During certification, first of all, the assessment and confirmation of the qualifications of professionals are carried out, and secondly, the practices themselves used by these employees are evaluated.

Standards can be divided into four types: international, national, industry and corporate.

PMI Institute and its standards

The development of project management technology began in America in the sixties. This was influenced by many factors, the main among which were the onset of the atomic era, competition with the USSR for space exploration and the creation of new defense strategies. It was a time of great change, and the need to establish project management and create a universal model for this was simply undeniable. Therefore, in 1969, the first non-profit organization Project Management Institute was created in the United States, which was engaged in the development of standards. Project management based on the PMI standard is carried out around the world and has more than three million professionals in this field.

Thus, the main standard was created, based on management methods as a system of generalized experience of all successfully implemented projects, which were regularly studied by the Institute staff. and became the national standard for project management in America. The productivity and success of this standard brought it from the national to the international level. Thus, at the moment, project management based on the PMI PMBOK standard is used by companies around the world. Moreover, new versions of this standard are constantly being developed, based on the regular generalization of best practices and theoretical knowledge.

Model of interaction of project management processes

Project management theory formed the basis of the PMBOK manual. It is built on the key aspects of the process model and it takes into account all phases. In addition, it takes into account all the functional areas of knowledge regarding control zones and their interactions with research objects. An important place in the standard is occupied by the management plan. Before the first edition appeared, the Institute had been collecting the necessary information and information for twenty years. And already in 1986, PMI released the first guide based on its research, which is constantly being updated to reflect current trends. At the moment, there are already five different publications that successfully help business development and represent American national project management standards.

ISO standard

Naturally, there are many standards in the world that have reached the world level. And each of them is in a fierce competition to get the place of the leader in project management technologies. There is a constant development of the certification and consulting services market. This indicates the prospects of this direction. And the largest part of this market can be occupied by the corporation that will receive authority at all levels - from professional to global. It is she who will be engaged in the training and certification of professionals, eventually developing at their expense.

It is the oldest and most powerful international organization that standardizes almost all areas of business and technology. Since it is the world leader in standardization, it has the right to introduce any new standards into the overall system, which, in fact, is its main difference from other companies. It is able to provide itself with impeccable channels of promotion, since it cooperates with the bureaucratic side of almost all states. The fact is that the ISO 21500:2012 project management standard released by this company has every chance of leadership. This is the main guide to project management in most of the world's countries.

Difference between ISO 21500:2012 and PMBOK

The first management standard was created by ISO in 2003. It contained the main guiding principles that could ensure the quality of the project. Despite the company's plans for the mass distribution of the document, they did not materialize. Therefore, by 2012, ISO has developed a new document in collaboration with PMI. The project management standard has now become similar to its competitor in many aspects. This is mainly expressed in the preservation of consistency and completeness of the product.

The main features of this standard are as follows:

identifying the best ways to implement the project, regardless of its specification;
drawing up a general picture that is understandable to all project participants, showing effective principles and management mechanisms;
provide a framework to improve project practice;
be the basis that unites the standards of all levels in the field of project management.

It turns out that these two standards are very similar in their content. The most complete analysis of project differences was made by the Polish scientist Stanislav Gashik, highlighting all the differences in the standardization of project management.

ICB IPMA standardization direction

The International Project Management Association (IPMA) was founded in Switzerland in 1965. The main purpose of its formation was the exchange of experience between project managers from different countries. And in 1998, we established the concept of professional project staff. That is, this system should have received a standard on the basis of which certification of the competence of specialists would be carried out. Thus, the ICB standard was developed, based on the accumulated experience and taking into account the national competence requirements of most European countries. At the same time, a four-level certification model was approved.

Unlike the already described international and project management, ICB IPMA took as its basis the structuring of the experience, knowledge and skills of leaders in the field of project management. Its main purpose is to establish internationally accepted requirements for the competence of PM specialists. At the moment, there is already the third edition, in which 46 elements are collected in three groups: technical, behavioral and consensual competence. The latter is expressed in the ability of the leader to build effective strategies with the participation of all stakeholders.

A schematic symbol shaped like an eye was also developed. It lists all groups. The manual does not contain specific descriptions of methods, processes or management tools. But the methodology is indicated on how to properly approach knowledge, skills and communications. But with its help, you can determine how ready the applicant for the role of the RM leader is to take up his duties and in what areas he still needs to develop.

From this it turns out that these are diametrically different standards, in connection with which the approaches to certification differ. PMI certification allows you to get the title of PMP, and international project management standards are the same in this case. You can get a certificate in our country in the capital and in St. Petersburg. You need to go through three stages, namely: interview, pass the exam and pre-qualify.

If we take the sensitive functioning of the system as a basis, in the case of the American method, the orientation is towards a single complex of knowledge and concepts. But IPMA evaluates the business and personal qualities of the applicant.

PRINCE 2 standard

Another national project management standard PRINCE 2 was developed in Britain and is currently used around the world. But it is not capable of competing with the American leadership, since it is a private technique for certain types of projects. It is based on a clear instruction, the implementation of which ensures the reliability of the effective implementation of the project work. Despite the limited scope of the standard developed in England, it is still widely used. It is used in IT design, product development and launch, housing, engineering and the public sector.

The methodology includes foundation sectors, plans, organization, quality and risks, among other things. When applying this project management quality standard, it is necessary to constantly closely monitor certain sets of topics and follow the technology, which is very detailed and deeply described in the methodology. Constant adjustment to the project environment, generation of management products and their support with documentation. There are seven principles, themes and processes in total. This allows you to achieve certain quality standards for project implementation. But there is also a drawback - there are no studies regarding the management of contact deliveries, stakeholders, and there are no a number of other processes that are described in the American international project management standard.

The practice of selecting and sharing standards

There are also Russian national standards that affect project management. The fact is that many companies prefer to use foreign standards for certification and management of their projects. But at the same time, various GOSTs have been developed both for individual companies and international standards.

As for the combination of standards, in many cases it is simply impossible to do without it. So, for example, companies using English standards need an additional methodology similar to PMBOK. In turn, the use of only the American standard leads to a lack of localized methods. But ISO or its analogue - the GOST R ISO 21500-2014 project management standard - is able to set concise requirements, while not having adaptation to specific corporate requirements. In general, the application of any methodology requires adaptation to the management culture of the organization where it is used.

Conclusion

Having analyzed almost all the main international project management standards, we can safely say that domestic standards are not applicable in practice without foreign additions. In turn, world standards require optimization and adjustment to the mentality and management system in our country. Thus, the only thing left to count on is that soon we will have more refined domestic standards that can meet the needs of business and project management. But until this happens, it is necessary to combine various standards in the field of project management in order to get an effective result from the work of PM professionals.