International Standards for Project Management

If there is a problem of optimization of activity, then the question of conformity to norms appears by itself. These are the direct needs of business that actively apply project management methods. The project manager, no less than others, is interested in confirming his professional experience before colleagues and employers. He wants to confirm his knowledge and skills as a PM professional and get paid for them. In this regard, the standards of project management are very important. After all, based on them, you can carry out their work and prove their own professionalism.

Standards

Standards are considered standards and samples of objects that are comparable with other such phenomena. Also, the standard can be called a document, which indicates the established rules, norms and requirements that allow you to assess compliance with their work. Only between the first and second definition there is an important difference. The first corresponds to the ideal, the second only contains recommendations on how to approach it.

In the world, for more than half a century, various project practices have been carried out. Therefore, millions of procedures of this nature were carried out, including those where unique solutions to various tasks were used. In this connection, there arose the need for systematization of this process, its generalization and unification. Therefore, this eventually became a separate branch of management, where different methodologies and standards for project management emerged.

First, it was necessary to define common terminology and concepts, so that in the future it was possible to obtain and generalize the requirements for work and its quality. Various project management technologies have been developed. Proceeding from this, it is logical that there was a need to determine what qualities and skills are needed for the person who will manage the project, and what steps it should take to become a successful leader.

Types of standards

Thus, there was a need to create institutions that study management in this field. At first everything was carried out at the national level, and then it turned out to be international. So, these institutions collected, accumulated and structured the experience in order to understand how to manage the project so that it would produce a concrete result. To determine the standards of project management, the best practices were analyzed and synthesized. To implement this, two management components were applied: object and subject. That is, individual projects and entire companies were considered together with the qualification requirements of project managers. Thus, there were methodological solutions that allow:

1. Definition and understanding of the terminology, subject matter of this direction and the role of all project participants.
2. Ensuring the development of specialists and management who practice the project type of activities and increase the results and effectiveness of the following projects.
3. During certification, the evaluation and confirmation of the qualifications of professionals are first of all carried out, and secondly, the practices used by these employees are already evaluated.

The standards of project management can be divided into four types: international, national, sectoral and corporate.

The 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 advance of the atomic age, the competition with the USSR for space exploration and the creation of new defense strategies. There was a time of great change, and the need to manage project management and create a universal model for this was simply undeniable. Therefore, in 1969, the United States created the first non-profit organization Project Management Institute, which was engaged in the development of standards. Project management based on the PMI standard is held around the world and has more than three million professionals in this field.

So the main standard was created, based on management methods as a system of generalized experience of all successfully implemented projects, which were regularly researched by the Institute staff. This guide has become a national standard in the field of 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 regular generalization of best practices and theoretical knowledge.

Model of interaction between project management processes

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

ISO Standard

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

ISO (ISO) is the oldest and most powerful international organization dealing with the standardization of virtually all business and technology areas. Since it is the leader of standardization at the world level, it has the right to introduce any new standards in the overall system, which, in fact, is its main difference from other companies. It is capable of providing itself with impeccable channels of advancement, since it helps with the bureaucratic side of almost all states. The fact is that the project management standard ISO 21500: 2012 issued by this company has all chances for leadership. This is the main guide for project management in most of the world's countries.

The difference between ISO 21500: 2012 and PMBOK

The first ISO standard in management was created in 2003. It contained basic guidelines that could ensure the quality of the project. Despite the company's plans for a massive distribution of the document, they were not justified. Therefore, by 2012, ISO developed a new document, working with PMI. The standard of project management has now become similar to its competitor in many aspects. Basically, this is expressed in the preservation of the system and completeness of the product.

The main functions of this standard are as follows:

• Identification of optimal 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 basis to improve project practice;
• To be a basis, uniting the standards of all levels in the field of project management.

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

The direction of ICB IPMA standardization

The International Association for Project Management IPMA was established in Switzerland in 1965. The main goal of its formation was to exchange experience between project managers of different countries. And in 1998, the concept of a certification system for professional staff in the field of projects was established. That is, this system was supposed to obtain 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 requirements for the competence of most European countries. At the same time, a four-level certification model was approved.

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

A schematic symbol, shaped like an eye, was also developed. It lists all the groups. There are no specific descriptions of methodologies, processes, or management tools in the manual. But the methodology is indicated, how to approach the knowledge, skills and communications correctly. But with her help you can determine how much the applicant for the role of the RM leader is ready to begin his duties and in what areas he still needs to develop.

From this it follows that these are diametrically different standards, in connection with which the approaches to certification differ. Certification PMI allows to receive a rank PMP, and the international standards of management of projects are identical in this case. You can get a certificate in our country in the capital and in St. Petersburg. It is necessary to go through three stages, namely: an interview, take an exam and pass a preliminary qualification.

If we take as a basis the sensitive functioning of the system, in the case of the American method, orientation goes to a single set of knowledge and concepts. But IPMA assesses the business and personal qualities of the applicant.

PRINCE 2 standard

Another national standard for project management PRINCE 2 was developed in Britain and is currently used around the world. But it can not compete with the American leadership, because it is a private method for certain types of projects. It was based on a clear instruction, the implementation of which ensures the reliability of the effective performance of the project. Despite the limited scope of the standard developed in England, it is still widely used. It is used in IT-design, when developing and launching new products, in the housing sector, in engineering and in the public sector.

The methodology includes the founding sectors, plans, organization, quality and risks, among other things. When applying this project management quality standard, it is necessary to keep a close eye on certain sets of topics and follow the technology, which is described in great detail and deeply in the methodology. Constantly there is a setting for the project environment, the generation of management products and maintenance of their documentation. In total, seven principles, themes and processes are used. This allows you to achieve certain quality standards for the implementation of projects. But there is a drawback - there are no studies on the management of contact supplies, stakeholders and there are no other processes that are described in the American International Standard for Project Management.

Practice of selection and joint application of standards

There are also Russian national standards affecting 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 are developed for both individual companies and international standards.

As for the combination of standards, in many cases it is simply impossible to do without it. For example, companies that use English standards need an additional methodology similar to PMBOK. In turn, the use of only the American standard leads to a shortage of localized methods. But ISO or its analogue - the project management standard GOST R ISO 21500-2014 - is able to set laconic requirements, while not having the adaptation for 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 disassembled almost all the main international standards for project management, we can safely say that domestic standards are not applicable in practice without foreign supplements. In turn, world standards require optimization and adjustment to the mentality and management system in our country. Thus, the only thing that remains to be counted on is that soon we will have more refined domestic standards that can meet the needs of business and the field of project management. But until this happens, it is necessary to combine various standards in the field of project management to obtain an effective result from the work of PM professionals.