First global Standard on project management – ISO 21500

This article by Miles Shepherd and Karl Best first appeared in ISO Focus+ September 2012.

Link.

ISO: New ISO standard on project management

ISO writes: "With pressure on business for faster and cheaper results, a new ISO standard for good practice in project management will increase efficiency and maximize the effect of investments.".

Article to be found here.

ISO 21500 Project Management certification

I found this interesting discussion in the LinkedIn-group ISO 2150.
For those who can't access this group, this is the text.

Ana-Maria Paraschiv, PMP • Dear group members,
It was recently clarified to me that ISO 21500 was developed as guidance only, and is not intended to be used for certification. There is nothing in 21500 that you can certify against.
This is unlike any other ISO I heard of and I am quite curious on the reasons for this? Why was the ISO 21500 created only for guidance and not also for certification/audit?
Looking forward for more details on this, if anyone has them :)
Thanks,
Ana

Mario Coquillat de Travesedo, PMP • Ana, final edition of ISO 21500 has deleted the sentence "This International Standard is not intended for certification or regulatory purposes" so now is open to market requirements.
This is ISO´s spirit, see the evolution of the guide and not predefine it.
However, current ISO 21500 has not the structure to be certified (requirements are not included) so probably next version (within 5 years) if market requires it will be oriented to certification.

Ana-Maria Paraschiv, PMP • Mario, Many, many thanks for the information. What I understand from you is that if at an organization level, or country level, the decision will be to use ISO 21500 as a standard of practice in project management, then that is ok, but a formal certification, as in being kept with and audit process is not yet possible, but might be in 5 years time. Did I get the message right?
Many thanks,
Ana

Mario Coquillat de Travesedo, PMP • That´s correct. If you want to work in implementation I invite you to visit our blog and the PMI´s volunteers project we´re working to help companies in this challenge.
http://iso21500analysis.blogspot.com.es/
About certification, you have to wait at least 5 years if you want to be certified by ISO or your national body (in Spain is Aenor) but if you want you can be recognized as a company which fulfill with ISO 21500 using a third party company (e.g. a consultant firm)

Lars Wendestam • There are quite many ISO standards not used for certification but still valuable to use. Som you are probalby using without knowing you do, such as the ISO standard for country codes and currency codes. Regarding ISO 21500, my view is to use it as a backbone standards to the quality standard ISO 9001. If you have a larger part of your organisations work performed in projects, it is relevant to have that described in your quality system. ISO 21500 helps you to get the right structure in your business managmeent system (BMS).

Prijs ISO 21500

De nieuwe ISO 21500 standaard kost 140 Zwitserse Franken, oftewel 116 Euro, 148 dollar.
Zowel als PDF downloadbaar als in papier vorm te krijgen.

Te koop bij de ISO zelve, hier.

ISO 21500 published!

The link to the news.

There is an article in the magazine ISO Focus+. You can download it here, the article starts at page 27.

ISO 21500 in three minutes.

The new standard for project management in three minutes. Link.

Project charter incluyendo el Comité de América Latina.

A presentation about ISO 21500 on SlideShare: here.

Description: "Ultima versión del project charter incluyendo el Comité de América Latina.".