Work continues to progress on the development of the ISO Project Management Standard 21500 (Guide to Project Management).

PMSA believes it is important for all project management practitioners to be aware of the upcoming international standard and to learn how you can participate in its development.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) approved the initiation of this new international project management standard in 2006, after which the project began in late 2007 as a project committee under the title ISO/PC 236, Project Management.

ISO/PC236 is made up of three working groups. Each group is tasked with specific duties:
• Working Group #1 – is tasked with developing the official vocabulary used within the document
• Working Group #2 – describes project management processes
• Working Group #3 – develops informative guidance such as the indexes, appendices, navigation, etc.

Each working group is lead by a convener and secretary.  They are responsible for facilitating the work of the team and striving for consensus among the members.  Members of the working groups consist of subject matter experts (SMEs) nominated by their countries to develop the technical content of the Standard.

Numerous countries have agreed to participate in the development of this standard, amongst others, South Africa.  All of these countries have already established committees within their national standards body to work on the development of this standard. In South Africa the mirror committee is called SABS/TC236, and is managed through our national standards body, SABS. 

PMSA played a leading role in the establishment of the local mirror committee to ISO/PC236, SABS/TC236, which was formed early in 2008. The committee managed to nominate 3 representatives, one per working group to attend and act as SMEs at all but one ISO/PC236 meeting to date, where they played significant roles in the creation of a standard of good quality.

The document was moved into a Committee Draft in Q4 2009, where it will remain from anywhere between two and five months.  If it is approved in that form, it will be expected to move into the Draft International Standard Phase, sometime in Q2 2011. At that stage it is available to ISO member countries for comment and ballot voting. If ISO member countries approve the draft, the document will then become a final draft international standard, and members will vote whether or not to publish it in its final form as an IS (International Standard). Final delivery of the standard is expected in 2012.

SABS/TC236 is at present in the process of a ballot to move the document to DIS (Draft International Standard) which may include commenting on the contents of the document, where serious disagreements exist. The ballot (with comments as applicable) is due to ISO on 5 April 2010. As the document is not in the public domain yet, and still in draft form, it cannot be distributed freely as yet. Once it is in DIS status, ISO will ask for public comment, and it is expected that the document will be available more freely to interested persons.

Anyone with a real interest in contributing to the new standard is requested to contact Jaycee Krüger or Valerie Carmichael-Brown for more information on how to become involved. Their e-mail addresses are jckruger@greybeards.co.za and valerie@triniti.co.za.