Comparing PMBOK ® Guide 4th Edition, PMBOK ® Guide 5th Edition, and ISO 21500

STS, a Swiss company specialized in Project Management training, launches an interesting comparative study between PMBOK® Guide 4th Edition, PMBOK® Guide 5th Edition, and ISO 21500.

For further information, please press here.

Launching of conclusions of the Survey performed in Spain about the knowledge of ISO 21500 Regulation and the interest that might arouse the development of a Guide for its implementation.

The summary of the conclusions obtained through this survey, performed till 31.07.2012, is as follows:

1. The responses obtained have a significant weight, for most of them have been given by people who have a long experience (more than 10 years) and dedicate their daily work to project management, and, additionally, most of those people have a certification or degree in Project Management, which provides our work with a “critical” value.

2.  Responses come from personnel from prominent companies or organizations, most of them with more than 1000 employees, IT & Communication as the outstanding sector. This aspect provides the obtained responses with a “formal nature”, for most big companies work with established procedures or standards inside their different departments. Otherwise, the fact of not counting with a significant presence of small companies makes us a little blind in our intention of elaborating a really universal guide.

3. The trend is that companies will tend to professionalize Project management inside their organizations, for nowadays there is less resistance against that, and, in addition, we have a nice percentage of them working under a formal framework. The quantity of PMO is still low and interest in creating them is scarce, so a possible objective or contribution of a Guide oriented to PMOs could be steered towards this aspect.   

4. The ISO 9001 is the most popular of regulations, having also a prominent seniority, and it will make easier the comprehension of  ISO 21500 Guides. Taking on account that the first motivation seems to be the recognition of the company rather than the continual improvement, we might think of a factor to help the organizations that are developing a Project management based in ISO 21500 to stand out (attractive), and maybe that factor should be based in the main benefits obtained from ISO 9001: costumer´s satisfaction and standardization of processes.

5. ISO 21500 regulation is known by nearly half of the survey responders, a number that becomes important, taking on account it is still a not very well known regulation, and has not become effective yet.

6.  It might be considered important to highlight at a certain point of the Guide which is the main contribution of ISO 21500 to Project management, for, though many people think it is a consolidation of Frameworks, a good amount of other people do not see clearly the contribution.

7. Though many people confirm the Non-certifiable condition of ISO 21500, another majority group, unaware of this aspect, thinks it should be so.

8. The making of both guides, one for PMs and another for PMOs, is a very well valued thing by the survey responders, so our effort  in such direction will be welcome, similarly as having an ISO, or specifically the ISO 9001, is understood as a help for implementation of ISO 21500.

For further information, you can consult the whole summary document through this link (Document available in Spanish).