It’s taken over 5 years! The long awaited ISO 21500 Guide to Project Management is now released. The final draft standard was approved by all the participating countries and once this process was completed, the standard was then published. It was made publicly available on September 3rd 2012 and there’s a link to the final version at the bottom of this page.
Differences Between the PMBoK® and ISO 21500
There are some differences between the PMI® PMBOK and the new ISO 21500 standard. A simple high level example of this is in the naming of the five process groups.
|
|
Initiating | Initiating |
Planning | Planning |
Implementing | Executing |
Controlling | Monitoring and Controlling |
Closing | Closing |
Stakeholders
Stakeholders, which is part of the PMBoK’s project communication management area is given it’s own subject within ISO 21500. Within the PMBok, this would include Identify Stakeholders and Manage Stakeholders Expectations.
Scope
Within Scope, there is some consolidation of the PMBoK’s definitions. For example,
ISO 4.3.11 Define Scope = 5.1 Collect Requirements & 5.2 Define Scope
Those among you who are familiar with the PMBoK will notice that 5.4 Verify Scope is missing from the ISO standard.
Resources
Resources as defined by the new ISO 21500 standard covers more than just people. Materials, equipment, facilities, etc. are all considered resources as opposed to those defined in the PMBoK’s HR Management Knowledge Area.
In the ISO 21500, you first create the project team and then define the project organization. This is different to the PMBoK approach where you first define the roles and project organization and then you hire the team.
Unlike the PMBoK, ISO 21500 specifically has a process for controlling resources, which is there to assure that any requested resources are available to the project.
What About EVM?
There’s some motivation to petition the ISO for an Earned Value Management (EVM) standard. “In recent years, the ever increasing level of globalization and cross-industry collaboration in a project environment generates a great need for a clear understanding of EVM practice and standards across geographic and industry boundaries,” according to the Australian delegation.
The PMI currently funds a research project which looks to better understand the current practice and future trends of EVM usage, standards, and services across different industry sectors and geographic regions.
Summary
The majority of the changes are minor and we are expecting that the next revision of the PMBoK will include some adjustments to improve the alignment of these two guides. You can purchase the new ISO 21500 standard by clicking here
For other industry news click here
PMI and PMBoK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.