When PMI published its first standard in 1983, the organization had only around 3,000 members. Since the publication of the white paper—Ethics, Standards, and Accreditation (ESA)—PMI has grown to more than 270,000 members and established a reputation as a true thought leader.

This month, PMI celebrated its 25^th year of standards development, and today boasts a catalog of 10 standards documents currently in print—covering everything from earned value management to work breakdown structures to portfolio management.

And there are more on the way.

“The standards, in terms of good practices across organizations and across sectors, provide a level of consistency, or repeatability, of transferability,” says John Zlockie, manager of standards at PMI.

Added Credibility

Having a baseline standard also provides an opportunity for the maturation and improvement of the process, according to Mr. Zlockie.

But embracing PMI’s standards does more than just improve an individual’s or an organization’s capabilities.

It can enhance the credibility of the entire organization, says Cindy Berg, principal at Phoenix, Arizona, USA-based C.A. Berg and Associates, a project management and organizational behavior consulting firm, and a senior faculty member at Keller Graduate School of Management in Mesa, Arizona, USA.

“Standards allow practitioners a framework within which to steer their organizations using proven tools and techniques that are generally accepted as good practice,” she says.

Creating Consensus

Much of the success of the standards stems from the extensive development process, which includes an exposure draft period.

“The standards process is extremely rigorous and includes a multitude of checkpoints and peer reviews,” says Debbie O’Bray, a current member of the PMI Standards Member Advisory group who has been working on PMI standards since 1992.

“Before a draft goes out for comment, it goes through a rigorous review process. Then, most standards are available for comment for 45 to 60 days. Every comment that a reviewer submits is captured and the project team is required to review and respond to everyone.

And that is no small feat—especially when people like Roger Chou, PMP, get involved.

When A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge—Fourth Edition (PMBOK^® Guide) went into exposure draft, the Kaohsiung City, Taiwan-based CEO of Advanced Business Consulting, a PMI Registered Education Provider (R.E.P.), put a call out to 1,000 PMP credential holders to join the team to read and make comments on it.

Forty-five people signed up and, with the help of the company’s consultants, got to work—focusing on details such as the differences between the new and old editions, changes in PMI wording, and revisions to the process flows and concepts presented in each chapter.

“The PMBOK^® Guide, in itself, is a book of tools for use in real practice,” Mr. Chou says. “It can only become a true project management bible if it has been tested and accepted by the experts in all application areas. Real-world professionals helping in the updating leads to a win-win situation for everyone involved.”

In the end, the team had a 15-page report that included recommendations such as keeping specific process-flow diagrams and reinstating content that had been cut.

It’s that kind of participation that makes PMI standards so widely accepted, according to Mr. Zlockie.

“The whole intent behind consensus is to have some sort of imprimatur rather than having just individual experts who write and describe their opinions,” he says. “Consensus brings a whole variety of viewpoints to the mix. The strength of the consensus process brings a certain element of expertise as well as practicality. It brings an element of depth and breadth to the standards.”