International and national standards for information project management

    Abstract: the article provides a chronological overview of popular standards in the field of information project management, their inherent features, affected areas of knowledge and processes. The role of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) in the formation of national standards of individual countries is presented.

    In 1986, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) began developing the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) software evaluation system for companies based on techniques described by Philip B. Grosby, a specialist and renowned quality management lecturer, in his book, Quality is Free ”[1]. The development was initiated by a request from the US Air Force, due to the urgent need to be able to evaluate the professionalism of contracting organizations.

    CMM defines five levels of professionalism [2]:

    1. Initial - the development process is not under statistical control, there is no progress in improving processes.
    2. Repeatable - a sustainable process with a renewable level of statistical control achieved through the use of rigorous project management in the field of labor, costs, timelines and changes.
    3. Established - there is an established development process, internal quality standards, management understands the shortcomings of the applied practices. Perhaps the successful implementation of advanced technologies.
    4. Managed - after a certain stage, you can initiate the analysis process. Management is able to manage quality with the help of developed techniques.
    5. Optimized - the organization is in a constant process of improvement.

    As the CMM assessment system was a questionnaire of 85 process and 16 technological questions, the standard itself became available to the public in 1988, a full description of CMM as a set of processes and practices corresponding to each level was released in 1991, in 1995 it was released in a book version [3]. Later, CMM was refined to a set of methodologies for improving processes in organizations: “Capability Maturity Model Integration” (CMMI), the latest (as of the end of 2014) version of CMMI-DEV, V1.3. came out in 2010, the following are the process areas that are given attention in this standard [4]:
    • Cause Analysis and Resolution (CAR)
    • Configuration Management (CM)
    • Decision Analysis and Resolution (DAR)
    • Project Integration Management (IPM)
    • Measurement and Analysis (MA)
    • Organization Process Description (OPD)
    • Organization Focus (OPF)
    • Performance Management (OPM)
    • Productive Organization Process (OPP)
    • Organizational Training (OT)
    • Product Integration (PI)
    • Project Monitoring and Control (PMC)
    • Project Planning (PP)
    • Product and Process Quality Assurance (PPQA)
    • Quantitative Project Management (QPM)
    • Requirement Development (RD)
    • Requirements Management (REQM)
    • Risk Management (RSKM)
    • Supplier Agreement Management (SAM)
    • Technical Solution Development (TS)
    • Validation (VAL)
    • Verification (VER)

    In 1989, the United Kingdom's Central Computer and Communications Agency (CCTA), later renamed the State Trade Administration (OGC), created a structured project management system PRINCE (Projects IN Controlled Environments) based on the PROMPT project management method developed by Simpact Systems Ltd »In 1975 and approved by CCTA as the standard for all government information systems projects in the UK. Since its introduction, PRINCE has effectively replaced PROMPT. Later, in 1996, an updated version of the PRINCE2 methodology was published, which was facilitated by a consortium consisting of a total of about 150 European organizations [5].

    PRINCE2 as a methodology overlaps in many ways and contributes to compliance with the international project management standard [6], so it can be applied to any type of project. Among other things, PRINCE uses “deviation management” to ensure the efficient use of time by higher management personnel, and also provides an explicit distribution of roles and responsibilities, so that everyone understands what is expected of them and what to expect from others. PRINCE2 includes: a set of principles, control topics and a process model [7].

    The principles of PRINCE2 contribute to good practice in implementing the methodology, preventing its excessive or superficial application and are deduced in a practical way:
    • Long business case
    • Learn from experience
    • Distribution of roles and responsibilities
    • Phased Management
    • Deviation Management
    • Product focus
    • Adaptation to project features

    PRINCE2 topics represent those aspects of project management that should be addressed throughout the project life cycle, they determine how processes should be handled:
    • Economic justification
    • Organization
    • Quality
    • Plans
    • The risks
    • Changes
    • Progress

    The process model consists of a set of activities that should be followed for the direction, management and completion of the project:
    • Launch of the project
    • Project management
    • Project initiation
    • Stage boundary management
    • Stage control
    • Product Supply Management
    • Project closure

    In February 1999, the International Project Management Association (IPMA), founded in 1965, as a nonprofit professional association designed to bring together project management specialists, publishes the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB) project management standard [ 8]. This standard contains competency requirements for project managers and members of project, program and portfolio management teams [9].

    IPMA appeared in Russia in 1990 as SOVNET. At present, the association is engaged in training in professional project management, accreditation of training programs in project management and international certification of specialists based on its own four-stage system [10]:

    A - certified project director;
    B - Certified Senior Project Manager;
    C - certified project manager;
    D - Certified Project Management Specialist.

    The national representative offices of the association, based on the ICB, are developing their own competency requirements in which national and cultural differences should be reflected, following this logic, SOVNET published the standard: “Fundamentals of professional knowledge and National requirements for the competence of project management specialists” (NTK), latest edition from 2010 [11].

    NTC considers a systematic model of project management consisting of three main components:

    1. Objects of management - projects, programs and portfolios;
    2. Management entities - investor, customer, team, leader and other interested parties.
    3. Management processes - are considered as a set of tasks and management procedures and are presented in sections: stages of the management process, functional area of ​​management, time interval, object and subject of management. The following stages of the management process are distinguished in NTK:
    • initiation (launch) of the project,
    • project work planning
    • organization and control of the project,
    • analysis and regulation of the progress of the project,
    • project closure.

    According to the time interval, the processes are divided into: strategic - the entire life cycle of the project, annual, quarterly and operational - which includes tasks with the start of execution from month to day. Depending on the subject area, the following control functions are distinguished in the NTC:
    • Project Domain Management
    • Project Management by Timing
    • Project Cost and Financing Management
    • Quality management in the project
    • Project risk and opportunity management
    • Human Resource Management in the project
    • Project Communications Management
    • Project and procurement management
    • Project Change Management
    • Project Security Management

    In addition to the foregoing, the standard covers the areas of certification, international cooperation, project success criteria and issues of general competence, such as organizational and technological maturity of a company in the field of project management. As for behavioral competence, such questions as leadership and leadership, involvement and motivation, self-control, confidence and persuasiveness, stress relief, openness, a creative approach, result-oriented, efficient, coordination, negotiations, conflicts and crises, reliability , understanding of values, ethics and problem solving.

    In 1996, the United States Project Management Institute (Project Management Institute, Inc., abbreviated PMI) published the A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) [12], which describes the PMBOK project management standard. This standard is compatible with the international project management standard ISO 9000. PMBOK combines an extensive set of knowledge and practices in the field of project management, as well as entire programs and project portfolios. It pays attention to the life cycle of the project, the impact of the organization, including its internal culture, on project management.

    The standard identifies a set of project management processes, the use of which is proven can increase the likelihood of success for a wide range of different projects, and the manual notes that it is not necessary to use a complete list of processes and it is worth selecting those that will effectively achieve the goals of the selected project. In the standard, processes are divided into the following groups [13]:
    • Project Management Process Group
    • Initiation process group (2 processes)
    • Group of planning processes (20 processes)
    • Execution Process Group (8 processes)
    • Group of monitoring and control processes (10 processes)
    • Group of completion processes (2 processes)

    In addition to management processes, the standard identifies areas of project management knowledge, each of which is a complete set of practices in the selected field, for example, the project cost management section consists of sections for evaluating, determining the budget and cost management; in total, the latest version of the edition proposes 9 areas of management knowledge projects:
    • Project Integration Management
    • Project Content Management
    • Project timing management
    • Project Cost Management
    • Project Quality Management
    • Project Human Resource Management
    • Project Communications Management
    • Project risk management
    • Project Procurement Management

    The interaction of management processes is shown in Appendix A, it is worth noting that according to a study conducted by Ph.D. S. Gashik [14], PMBOK processes are 95 percent similar to those described in the international project management standard ISO 21500 [15].
    In November 2001, the Japan Project Management Professionals Certification Center (PMCC), later renamed the Japan Project Management Association (PMAJ), published the P2M project management standard. In the context of the methodology, managers are considered who are called to achieve the mission of the project, who must have knowledge from related fields and are divided into three levels of professionalism:
    • Specialist Manager (PMS),
    • Manager-Registered (PMR) and
    • Manager Architect (PMA).

    P2M considers both the field of project management and project program management, and includes the management of the following areas of knowledge [15]:
    • Strategic Project Management
    • Project Finance Management
    • Project Systems Management
    • Project Management
    • Project Goal Management
    • Project Resource Management
    • Management of risks
    • Information management
    • Project Relationship Management
    • Project Cost Management
    • Project Communications Management

    Thus, as a result of a review of information project management standards, it was possible to establish that in all of them, one of the central groups of processes is risk management and project quality management. Moreover, most of the considered standards are intersectoral in nature.

    The basic standards used in the field of project management are considered, the beginning of the development of the first of which dates back to 1986, and the last of 2010, their inherent processes and features, intersections with international project management standards. The role of the International Project Management Association (IPMA) in the formation of national standards of individual countries is presented, the applicable levels for assessing the qualifications of companies and managers are presented. The study examined the following standards submitted by relevant organizations and countries:
    • CMMI - Software Engineering Institute (USA)
    • PRINCE - Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (United Kingdom)
    • ICB - International Project Management Association (Switzerland)
    • NTK - SOVNET (national IPMA office in Russia)
    • PMBOK - Project Management Institute (USA)
    • ISO 21500 - International Organization for Standardization
    • P2M - Project Management Association of Japan (Japan)

    List of references


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    2. Humphrey WS, Characterizing the Software Process. A maturity Framework [Electronic resource] / Software Engineering Institute, 1987 - Access mode: www.sei.cmu.edu/reports/87tr011.pdf (accessed: 03.11.2014).
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    9. Soolyatte A.Yu., Project management in the company: methodology, technology, practice. M .: MFPU "Synergy", 2012
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    11. Project management. Fundamentals of professional knowledge, National requirements for the competence of specialists / Ed. Doctor of Technical Sciences Voropaeva V.I., Moscow: Project Design Practice CJSC, 2010
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    14. Gasik S., PhD, Comparison of ISO 21500 and PMBOK®. Guide Version improved after comments of Jesus Guardiola and Francesca Montanari [Internet source] - Access mode: www.sybena.pl/dokumenty/ISO-21500-and-PMBoK-Guide.pdf (accessed: 03.11.2014).
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