ISO 21500 Guidance on project management – A Pocket Guide E-Book

Rommert Stellingwerf

• Herausgeber: Van Haren Publishing
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 121

Beschreibung

This pocket guide explains the content and the practical use of ISO 21500 - Guidance on project management, the latest international standard for project management, and the first of a family of ISO standards for project, portfolio and program management. ISO 21500 is meant for senior managers and project sponsors to better understand project management and to properly support projects, for project managers and their team members to have a reference for comparing their projects to others and it can be used as a basis for the development of national standards. This pocket guide provides a quick introduction as well as a structured overview of this guidance and deals with the key issues within project management: • Roles and responsibilities • Balancing the project constraints • Competencies of project personnel All ISO 21500 subject groups (themes) are explained: Integration, Stakeholder, Scope, Resource, Time, Cost, Risk, Quality, Procurement and Communication. A separate chapter explains the comparison between, ISO 21500 and PMBOK® Guide PRINCE2, Agile, Lean, Six Sigma and other methods, practices and models. Finally, it provides a high level description of how ISO 21500 can be applied in practice using a generic project life cycle. Proper application of this new globally accepted project management guideline will support organizations and individuals in growing their project management maturity consistently to a professional level.

Leseprobe

Colophon

Title:

ISO21500: Guidance on project management

– A Pocket Guide

Series:

Best Practice

Authors:

Anton Zandhuis, PMP

Rommert Stellingwerf, MSc, PMP

Reviewers:

Ben Bolland (BEVON Gilde)

Stanisław Gasik (Vistula University)

Martin Rother (QRP)

Text editor:

Steve Newton

Publisher:

Van Haren Publishing, Zaltbommel,

www.vanharen.net

ISBN hard copy:

978 90 8753 809 5

ISBN eBook:

978 90 8753 010 5

Print:

First edition, first impression, May 2013

Layout and type setting:

CO2 Premedia, Amersfoort – NL

Copyright:

© Van Haren Publishing, 2013

In this publication illustrations and texts have been reused with permission from British Standards Institute (BSI):

‘Permission to reproduce extracts from BS ISO 21500:2012 is granted by BSI. British Standards can be obtained in pdf or hard copy formats from the BSI online shop: www.bsigroup.com/Shop or by contacting BSI Customer Services for hardcopies only: Tel: [phone], Email: [email protected]’

© 2012 BSI for Figure 2.1; Table 2.1; Annex B Glossary

For any further enquiries about Van Haren Publishing, please send an e-mail to: [email protected]

Although this publication has been composed with most care, neither Authors nor Editor nor Publisher can accept any liability for damage caused by possible errors and/or incompleteness in this publication.

No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by print, photo print, microfilm or any other means without written permission by the Publisher.

Preface

Project management is one of the key skill sets demanded by organizations around the world. Some facts:

•   One-fifth of the world’s GDP, or more than $12 trillion, will be spent on projects each year in the decade 2010-20201.

•   In the coming years many skilled project management practitioners will be leaving the workforce due to retirement — a trend which will have a major strategic impact for over 60% of the organizations worldwide2.

Consequently there is a great demand for knowledgeable project managers.

The intention of this pocket guide is to provide you with a quick introduction to one of the latest developments in the project management profession: ISO 21500 ‘Guidance on project management’ being the first really globally accepted standard on project management. This guide contains a brief and straightforward introduction and high level summary of ISO 21500, with tips for its practical application. It is therefore key knowledge for a project manager who is ready for the future.

It will enable and support you, your organization and all project stakeholders to speak ‘one language’ in project environments, even cross-borders, with multiple nationalities and multiple organizations involved. It will explain ISO 21500, its background and its practical application.

In 2006 ISO recognized the organizational need for knowledgeable project managers and decided that organizations could benefit from some guidance in this area. An international team of over one hundred experts in project management worked for five years to develop a globally accepted guideline on project management. This development didn’t start from scratch; instead it integrated the knowledge from reputable representatives in the project management profession from all over the world, like PMI and IPMA. All this work resulted in a rather slim document. However the impact of ISO 21500 on the project management profession is huge. Committing to ISO 21500 means that all of the stakeholders in project environments speak the same language and work with the same ‘big picture’ in mind, thus improving communication. ISO 21500 is, therefore, a fundamental input when cooperating in projects and jointly striving for project success.

With ISO 21500 being the first guidance on project management that is accepted and recognized by most of the international organizations which represent and contribute to the project management profession, it will become the key reference for future developments in this profession. This fact is already confirmed by e.g. the latest (fifth) edition of PMI’s PMBOK Guide (2013), which shares exactly the same structure with only slightly different names for some processes, and which overlaps with more than 95% of the processes mentioned in ISO 21500. Other globally applied standards, like IPMA’s Competency Baseline 4.0 (due in Autumn 2014), already plan to follow the same direction.

Is it important for you to know? Well, nowadays every organization has projects, whether formally recognized as such or not. Projects are mostly aimed at achieving new organizational capabilities, for meeting new demands, driven by the increased pace of change in the organization’s environment, or for realizing new opportunities. So it is more than likely that at some point in time during your professional career you will have a role to play in these projects. For that reason it is important for you to have some basic understanding of project management. No matter what your role in the project is, project manager, project sponsor, project team member: all stakeholders speaking the same language in projects is key to facilitating communication, and increasing the speed, quality and chances of project delivery.

We would also like to underline that all these projects represent large investments by organizations, as we have mentioned in the beginning. But moreover, think about the time and effort spent by scarce resources. For organizations it has become essential to deliver their projects successfully to ensure a sustainable future. That takes more than a skilled, experienced, knowledgeable and competent project manager. It requires basic project management knowledge from all project stakeholders and some well-defined processes, applied in practice, to facilitate real cooperation and ensure realizing the drive to make it happen. If this teamwork is based on a (well) defined, shared and well understood approach, it will increase the success rate of projects, delivering or even exceeding the expected benefits.

We encourage you, your project management community and project stakeholders collectively, to become familiar with ISO 21500, its concepts, subject groups (themes) and its processes, in order to increase successful project delivery!

May 2013,

Anton Zandhuis

Rommert Stellingwerf

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Van Haren Publishing for their vision and the opportunity to write and publish this pocket guide.

We are grateful for the cooperation of BSI and their permission to use parts of the BS ISO 21500:2012 document.

We have been inspired by some of the analysis work of the ‘ISO 21500 interest group’ especially for chapter 7, where we compare ISO 21500 with other standards and methods. This interest group was initially formed in 2009 to review the usability of the forthcoming ISO 21500 guideline in the Netherlands, and is sponsored by IPMA-NL and PMI Netherlands Chapter. Given the enthusiasm of its members for the development of the project management profession, and the open discussions and sharing of ideas and insights, it is now continuing as ‘ISO for projects’ in order to further contribute to the promotion and practical implementation of the ISO 21500 guideline, as well as to assess the application of the new ISO documents for program and portfolio management and for project governance, which are all under development at the time of writing.

We also appreciate that the reviewers spent time to read our manuscript and forward their comments to us. We have incorporated their valuable input where applicable in the final manuscript.

And last but not least, we would like to thank our partners and children for not complaining when we could not share quality time with them because of our commitment to the planning and the writing of this book.

Table of contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

1       Introduction

1.1     Purpose of this pocket guide to ISO 21500

1.2     Practical tips for using this pocket guide

1.3     Why apply project management?

1.4     Successfully fulfilling your role as project sponsor, project manager or project team member

1.5     Frequently asked questions

2       ISO 21500 background and overview

2.1     ISO organization

2.2     ISO standards development process

2.3     ISO standard versus guideline

2.4     Background of ISO 21500

2.5     The contents of ISO 21500

2.6     The future of ISO 21500

3       ISO 21500 and roles and responsibilities

3.1     Roles, responsibilities, tasks and activities

3.2     Project stakeholders in ISO 21500

3.3     Benefits of ISO 21500 for some specific roles

4       ISO 21500 and balancing the project constraints

4.1     Constraints and their importance

4.2     Typical constraints

5       ISO 21500 and competences of project personnel

5.1     Competence

5.2     Competences of project personnel

6       ISO 21500 Subject groups

6.1     Integration Subject group

6.2     Stakeholder Subject group

6.3     Scope Subject group

6.4     Resource Subject group

6.5     Time Subject group

6.6     Cost Subject group

6.7     Risk Subject group

6.8     Quality Subject group

6.9     Procurement Subject group

6.10   Communication Subject group

7       ISO 21500 compared to other methods, practices and models

7.1     Comparison with the PMBOK Guide

7.2     Comparison with PRINCE2 2009 Edition

7.3     Comparison with ICB version 3

7.4     Comparison with Agile project management

7.5     Comparison with PRiSM

7.6     Comparison with Critical Chain Project Management

7.7     Comparison with Event chain methodology

7.8     Comparison with Process based management

7.9     Comparison with Lean project management

7.10   Comparison with Six Sigma

7.11   Comparison with Benefits realization management

8       ISO 21500 in practice

8.1     The project life cycle – the key to start

8.2     The recurring project management phase

8.3     The Pre-project phase

8.4     The Definition phase

8.5     The Realization and implementation phase

8.6     The Closing phase

8.7     Conclusion

Annex A ISO 21500 self-assessment

Annex B Glossary

Annex C References

About the authors

1 Introduction

1.1   Purpose of this pocket guide to ISO 21500

ISO 21500 provides generic guidance on the concepts and processes of project management that are important for the successful realization of projects. This pocket guide is intended as a brief reference to assist in quickly understanding the purpose, background and key elements.

What is the value of ISO 21500? This new globally accepted project management standard is recognized as a foundational reference for the application of project management knowledge and good practices. Research has confirmed that, when managing projects, the structured application of this fundamental knowledge and good practices clearly enhances successful delivery. Project environments that consistently apply this fundamental project management good practice approach not only show better project performance in terms of lower costs and shorter delivery times, but they also demonstrate higher levels of customer satisfaction. The application of the project management good practices, as described in ISO 21500, will support you in realizing these benefits.

In addition to the above, when working in a project management environment, for which the organization is far more dynamic than ‘normal’ operations, there is an increased need for good communication. To achieve this, it is important to use ‘one common language’ within your project management environment, which is understood by everyone involved, particularly the key stakeholders of the project. This pocket guide aims to quickly establish a shared vocabulary and terminology on the project management fundamentals and create a common understanding about the basic project management processes together with the key roles and responsibilities. Moreover the guide provides a high level description of how the ISO 21500 guideline can be applied in practice, using a ‘generic’ project life cycle as a reference.

What it’s not? It is definitely not ‘the’ solution for all challenges when managing projects. The project manager and the team remain ultimately responsible for deciding what good practices shall be applied to the specific project at hand, in close cooperation with the project sponsor and the management of the line organization or sponsoring entity.

In a nutshell, this pocket guide is intended as a key contributor and tangible asset when introducing and reinforcing concepts of project management in your organization for improved communication and cooperation. It supports an organization-wide implementation of a project management culture, bringing you the benefits of ‘your projects executed right the first time’! At the organizational level this can be enhanced by implementing a project management approach, based on these good practices.

1.2   Practical tips for using this pocket guide

On the fold out at the back cover of this book, all subject areas and applicable processes and chapter numbers are listed. Key project management terms and definitions are explained in the Glossary of the ISO 21500 terminology, in Appendix B.

1.3   Why apply project management?

Every organization has its unique culture and faces diverse challenges. Also, organizations start with a different situation and set of problems to be resolved. In order to define the value of project management, we firstly need to define exactly what is meant by project management, as this is a broad concept. Then we can look at the various aspects of project management and show the value associated with each aspect.

Project management – ISO 21500 definition:

Project management is the application of methods, tools, techniques and competences to a project. Project management includes the integration of the various phases of the project life cycle. Project management is accomplished through processes.

Research shows that, with the increasing complexity and faster changing environments that businesses are faced with, projects managed by the structured application of good practice-based processes show consistently better performance in areas such as, but not limited to:

•   ‘Deliver as promised’ by realistic expectation-setting through up-front project definition, planning, and estimation;

•   Faster delivery through the reuse of common and known project management processes;

•   Less ‘surprises’ during project execution, utilizing proactive project management processes;

•   Improved customer satisfaction and less rework by delivering the right product or service, right, the first time.

These opportunities together with the savings offered by organizational project management excellence are all tangible. But the value proposition for project management is much greater and also includes less tangible benefits like:

•   A highly committed and motivated team that can work together through effective communication and goal setting;

•   An inspiring project environment with a ‘can-do’ mentality through ambitious yet realistic commitments;

•   Transparent and improved decision-making at all organizational levels through more effective communication.

These qualitative benefits will even reinforce the quantitative advantages, which will guarantee that an organization is able to excel.

Many organizations have built a good reputation for being able to consistently deliver top quality projects. However, a majority of organizations are still struggling with this. Do you recognize the following characteristics?

•   Projects mostly deliver late, over-budget, or without meeting the functionality requirements of the project sponsor and end-users;

•   Project managers do it ‘their way’ as there are no, or poor, standards for project management processes and techniques;

•   Project management is regarded as an overhead instead of being recognized as providing business value;

•   The project work undertaken by resources from within the line organization is not carefully planned for as part of the operations planning, but is typically regarded as ‘next to your primary function’;

•   Project budgets do not include the cost of the internal workforce as they are ‘already paid for’;

•   There is no overall insight available on all the projects being undertaken in the organization, nor their cost versus the added value;

•   The required work for managing projects proactively is not included in the project plan;