In late December, PMI will debut updates of four highly respected standards. By updating all four simultaneously, teams could ensure that the standards harmonized with each other.
Here, the team project managers give us an advance idea of what can be expected from their hard work .
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)–Fourth Edition
PMI released the first
PMBOK® Guide in 1996 and since then it has become the global
standard for project managers.
For the fourth edition, the project team made several improvements. The first was the inclusion of project documents, such as issue logs, duration estimates and resource requirements, to aid project managers in project execution.
Another noticeable change, says Cynthia Stackpole, PMP, project manager for the update, was the combination of the change request, corrective action, preventive action and defect repair groupings into one heading called “Change Requests.”
“Our goal was to bring about clarity and have the specific planning process outputs serve as inputs to developing the project management plan and not the other way around,” she says.
Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®)–Second Edition
Alignment with the PMBOK® Guide—Fourth Edition was a driving force in developing the second edition of OPM3, PMI’s best practice standard for enterprise improvement.
The update includes the introduction of organizational enablers.
“These are the structural-, cultural-, technological- and human resource-focused best practices, which underpin the implementation of best practices in projects, programs and portfolios,” Tim MacFadyen, PMP, project manager for the new edition. “This ultimately helps foster project management within an organization and helps project managers anchor processes within the organization.”
The team also updated the standard’s self-assessment method (SAM) questions—refining the offering from 151 to 120 questions.
“The goal was to make SAMs very straightforward—clearing up any confusion and facilitating application for PMP [credential holders],” Mr. MacFadyen says. “Our goal was to simplify and make sure people find solid use of the standard.”
The Standard for Program Management—Second Edition
The most significant aspect of the latest edition of The Standard for Program Management Program is the development of knowledge areas specific to programs, explains Frank Parth, PMP, project manager for the update.
“It gives the program managers a significant amount of information that is relevant to managing large, complex programs,” he says.
According to Mr. Parth, the second edition provides a consistent framework to adequately assess project, program or portfolio management.
“For the first time we are talking about governance and audits,” Mr. Parth says. “Both topics are highly relevant to programs but have not been included in any standards before.”
The Standard for Portfolio Management—Second Edition
The second edition of PMI’s Standard for Portfolio Management brings with it a noticeable foray into two significant knowledge areas: governance and risk.
“These are key additions, especially risk,” says Larry Goldsmith, PMP, project manager for the standard’s update. “At the portfolio level there are different risks involved, many of which are external, such as shareholder value. By taking on a given project within the portfolio, you could introduce the company to unnecessary risk.”
According to Mr. Goldsmith, the standard’s coverage area is significant for all project managers in part because of its role in advancing the profession’s career path from project to program to portfolio management.
Mr. Goldsmith adds that project managers should note the synchronization established throughout the standards’ development.
“There needed to be a level set between the four standards to make them more integrated instead of interfaced,” he says. “This is something we definitely accomplished.”
Harmonizing PMI Standards
One of the main goals in releasing four PMI standards simultaneously was to ensure they each were in harmony with the other.
But what does that mean exactly?
Think of an orchestra, says Beth Ouellette, managing director of The Ouellette Group, PMP, PgMP.
“If you have ever seen music for an orchestra, you know that there is music for each instrument. In many cases the notes are different, they are not in agreement, yet when played together—at the direction of the conductor—the results are lovely and wonderful harmonious music,” says Ms. Ouellette who worked across project teams on the harmonization efforts.
“So the music for us was each of the standards, and each of the chapters within the standards, which all needed to be done individually, yet come together to a harmonious whole, just like the orchestra.“
The Process
To get the process started, the teams agreed to use the PMBOK® Guide as the base document on which all other standards would be verified.
“We also agreed that the Program Standard would ‘own’ those things exclusive to a program, and that the Portfolio Standard would ‘own’ those things exclusive to a portfolio,” says Ms. Ouellette.
And Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3®) became the standard that lifted the standards to an organizational level.
The goals for the harmonization process included assessing inconsistencies and aligning.
“If a term is used, we agreed that there was no room for poetic license, they all needed to be used verbatim across standards and ultimately in the standards lexicon,” she says.
The teams also built in necessary processes to create alignment, consistency, clarity and ultimate harmonization across all four standards.
Working with PMI, checkpoints were also put in place to ensure communication. Comparison tables were used to alert the teams to intersections of commonality and areas that needed coordination.
And teleconferences served as the forum for sharing progress, issues and concerns.
“We had face-to-face meetings to hammer out conflicts, inconsistencies and contradictions. And with all of these events, there was careful pre-event planning, collaboration, information and data reviews, recommendations and suggestions,” says Ms. Ouellette.
As the standards continued to progress, it became Ms. Ouellette’s job to stay abreast of updates, additions, changes and deletions to the content of each standard. As conflict and inconsistency arose, she was the one to raise the red flag.
“[Feedback on these issues] was incorporated into the teleconference and face-to-face meeting agendas to be addressed by the project teams,” she says. “This process continued throughout the months of the standards creation, exposure, adjudication, appeals and edits.”
Even with the release of these four standards drawing close, the harmonization process is only partially complete.
“It is when there is convergence of the application and use of the standards within our PMI community at large, in a consistent, clear, concise fashion that we reach true harmonization,” Ms. Ouellette says.
