Ethics Guidelines

Ethics is about making the best possible decisions concerning people, resources and the environment.

To guide behavior and help with tough decisions, we've crafted a PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, an ethical decision-making framework, and toolkits for specific Project Management roles.

PMI members’ ethics commitments

Code of Ethics

PMI members have determined that honesty, responsibility, respect, and fairness are the values that drive ethical conduct for the project management profession. PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct applies those values to the real-life practice of Project Management, where the best outcome is the most ethical one.

All PMI members, volunteers, certification holders, and certification applicants must comply with the Code.

Codes values card

This code values card affirms the four values–responsibility, respect, fairness, honesty–as its foundation.

Ethics frameworks and toolkits

Ethical decision-making framework

The framework is a practical resource to guide you toward ethical choices and accountability. It will be helpful if you are faced with an ethical dilemma. Use it to stimulate critical thinking.

Practitioner Toolkit

The PMI Practitioner Ethics Toolkit includes a rich set of resources to assist PMI practitioners understand, identify, and proactively manage ethical issues.

Chapter leadership toolkit

This assessment tool helps chapter board members evaluate and understand their strengths, challenges, and disagreements on ethics-related issues.

Volunteer toolkit

The PMI Volunteer Ethics Toolkit includes a rich set of resources to assist PMI volunteers to understand, identify, and proactively manage ethical issues.