Do You Know About ISO 21500?
You’ve got project and program standards, processes and tools in your organization. But how effective are they really?
It’s hard to benchmark your company’s performance against what others are doing because most businesses don’t publish their internal processes – and for good reason. So how do you know whether your teams are doing what most of their peers across the industry are doing? And how do you access international best practice to benchmark your performance?
ISO 21500 is how.
What is ISO 21500?
ISO 21500 is the international standard for project management best practices.
It’s actually a growing series of standards that cover different aspects of managing projects, programs and portfolios. It’s a goldmine of information about how the best companies run their strategic changes because it consolidates what works from many different industries into a set of principles that anyone can follow.
ISO 21500:2012 is the specific standard that relates to project management. It’s reviewed every five years to ensure it reflects current best practice.
The standard documents were put together using input and information from the global professional bodies representing project management standards including PMI.
Who is ISO 21500 relevant for?
ISO 21500 is relevant for people working in a project delivery environment, across all organizations regardless of whether you’re in the private or public sector, or working in a community-based organization. That includes:
- Senior managers
- Project sponsors
- Project managers
- Project team members
- PMO leaders
- PMO team members.
Regardless of your role, the standard will provide you with a better understanding of how project management works, including the principles and common practices. It’s also applicable for projects of all sizes, so even if you’re managing very small initiatives, you’ll still find useful best practices in the standard.
Ultimately, if you want to know how you shape up against other organizations, you’ll get a lot out of benchmarking your performance against the standard.
What can you use it for?
ISO 21500 is an international standard which means you can assess yourself against it. If you have internal processes and systems for project and program management, you can use ISO 21500 to benchmark your performance against global best practices.
ISO 21500:2012 focuses on projects only, so expect to read about how projects work in the context of programs and portfolios – even though there isn’t detailed information about program and portfolio best practices included in the standard. There are other standards in the family that specifically relate to those, so you might need to get your hands on several standards, or extend the scope of your assessment, if you want to benchmark your performance at a program or portfolio capacity.
In our experience, businesses use it as a way to improve internal practice and also prove to clients that they are using solid project management techniques to manage the work.
How to benchmark your organization against ISO 21500
The easiest way to benchmark your processes and performance is to have us do an ISO 21500 assessment! Impartial, external assessors will give you an honest view of how well your internal methods shape up in comparison to internationally-recognized best practices.
If your organization is assessed as conforming with the standard, you can be certified. Certification can be important for winning contracts and in some industries, for some standards, it could be a legal requirement.
What happens during an assessment
The process for you is very simple. When you are ready to invest in an assessment, Ten Six’s expert project management consultants will visit your organization (in person or remotely as appropriate) and assess the PMO and approaches to project management. They’ll compare what you currently do to the ISO standard.
Once the assessment is complete, you get an audit report with guidance on where to focus your efforts to take the next step in project management maturity. It’s common for your first assessment to flag up some areas where the internal practices are not compliant with the standard. We’ll provide you with guidance on those, and when you have taken steps to improve those areas, we can endorse your compliance with the ISO best practices.
Benefits of an ISO 21500 Assessment
Is it worth getting certified against the standard? We think so.
The most obvious benefit of undertaking an assessment of your internal practices against global best practice is that you find out how you are performing and what you could be doing better. That in itself is golden information that will directly inform the development path for your PMO and improve project success rates.
Second, the external validation that certification brings is a huge sign to potential customers that you take quality seriously.
However, there are some other benefits to going through the assessment process, including:
- It shows your PMO leadership team is committed to continuous improvement and ongoing adherence to internal standards
- It demonstrates to customers that you are using best practices, whether you work with internal customers or external clients
- It provides the opportunity for a review of current practice, which is an essential part of improving project and program maturity
- It supports your internal audit efforts and provides assurance to senior executives
- It can boost morale and be a talking point to recognize the individual and team members of the PMO for the work they have done.
Above all, it gives you and your team a road map for what to focus on next. You can accelerate your success with that information because it tells you what areas are important and helps you make smart decisions about how to improve project performance by honing your process in the areas that make a difference.