The Project Management Institute (PMI) is a US non-profit incorporation which is today a worldwide leading organisation for project management. Their aim is to improve organizational success, promote careers and strengthen project management as a profession via globally recognized standards, tools, certifications, resources, academic research, publications, professional development courses and networking opportunities.
Global Standards
PMI standards provide rules, guidelines and characteristics for project, program and portfolio management and are a model for businesses and governments. These standards are developed in a six-steps process by thousands of PMI volunteers with experience in every type and scope of project and provide a common language for project management worldwide. PMI standards help improve the understanding and competency of project management practitioners and executive leaders.
The standards PMI develop and publish fall into three main categories:
Foundational Standards
Practice Standards and Frameworks
Practice Guides
Foundational standards provide a foundation for project management knowledge and represent the four areas of the profession, namely project, program, portfolio and the organizational approach to project management. There is a standard edition for every topic itself and there is a basic version, the PMBOK guide (a guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge) as a general foundation. They represent the foundation on which practice standards and industry-specific extensions are built.
Practice standards and Frameworks describe the use of a tool, technique or process identified in the foundational standard. It has seven different specifications:
Practice Standard for Project Risk Management
Practice Standard for Earned Value Management
Practice Standard for Project Configuration Management
Practice Standard for Work Breakdown Structures
Practice Standard for Scheduling
Practice Standard for Project Estimating
Project Manager Competency Development Framework
Practice guides provide supporting information and instruction helping to apply PMI standards. Practice guides may become potential standards in the future and if so, would undergo the process for development of full consensus standards.
Credentials and certification
The first credential was the PMP (Project Management Professional) and is since then the gold standard of project management certification. The PMP validates individual competence to perform in the role of a project manager, leading and directing projects and teams. It is recognized and demanded by organizations worldwide. Additionally, in the past years more and more credentials were introduced and no certification is a pre-requisite for another. The current credentials are:
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Program Management Professional (PgMP)
Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)
Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
PMI Professional in Business Analysis (PMI-PBA)
PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP)
PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP)
Sources:
https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards (28.04.2018)
https://www.pmi.org/pmbok-guide-standards/framework (28.04.2018) https://www.pmi.org/certifications/types (28.04.2018)
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