Project Management Standards
Project management has existed for centuries in various forms but became a distinct profession during the mid-20th century. During the past 60+ years, the Project Management Institute (PMI) has emerged as the leading professional organization promoting standards and best practices in the project management field. PMI has developed a comprehensive ecosystem of project management resources, including A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and the globally recognized Project Management Professional (PMP) certification. In addition to its core project-management products, PMI has developed variants for program management, portfolio management and agile methods as well as specialty disciplines, such as business analysis, risk and scheduling.
Because of its storied history, broad coverage of project management-related topics and the global ecosystem of project management professionals and software vendors aligned to PMI’s standards, PMI is one of the industry’s leading sources of project management best practices and defines project management in the context of 5 process groups:
- Initiating
- Planning
- Executing
- Monitoring and controlling
- Closing
Project management best practices strive to execute these processes effectively and efficiently to achieve any project’s objectives. In addition to the process areas, PMI defines 10 project management knowledge areas, which provide further clarity about how to execute and apply the project-management processes within the context of a project.
- Integration
- Scope
- Time
- Cost
- Quality
- Procurement
- Human resources
- Communication
- Risk management
- Stakeholder management
It is within the context of these knowledge areas that most project-management best practices have emerged. The core project-management processes are the same, regardless of the nature of the project or methodology selected. How you execute the processes is a matter of subjective decisions made in each of the knowledge areas.