ISO/PC 236 releases ISO 21500 Committee Draft

Reported by Jouko Vaskimo in Helsinki

Project Committee 236 of the International Organization for Standardization has released the Committee Draft version of the ISO 21500, the new international standard on project management. ISO/PC 236 has been working with determination since the June 2009 meeting in Tokyo, Japan, to be able to release the first Committee Draft version after several consecutive Working Draft versions.

The Committee Draft balloting time frame opened on January 11th 2010 with the release of the draft, and will come to a close on April 12th 2010. Each national ISO member participating in the ISO/PS 236 work will have the possibility to cast a vote in favor of / opposing the draft, and submit comments and suggestions for the ISO / PC working groups to follow.

The main difference between a Working Draft and a Committee Draft is the fact that a Working Draft is a confidential working document, and only available to the ISO/PC experts, whereas a Committee Draft is an open document, and available to all national ISO members and their ICO/PC 236 mirror committees.

Mr Miles Shepherd, International Advisor and Correspondent for PMForum in the UK, is chairing the ISO/PC 236. Mr Shepherd stated "I am very pleased that the strides our experts made in achieving consensus in the Tokyo Plenary have resulted in this Committee Draft. It is an important milestone in the development of our Standard as the full International community of project managers will now have their first opportunity to see the results of our work so far and to comment. I'm sure we will have an interesting and challenging time at our next plenary when we meet to reconcile the views of this community." (photo courtesy Jouko Vaskimo)

Mr Shepherd noted that proceeding in to the Committee Draft phase quickly is necessary in order to comply with the intention to publish the new standard officially in November 2012. Mr Shepherd extends his personal and ISO/PC 236 gratitude to the many National Experts and Liaison Groups who have contributed to the international effort to create the new standard, especially the chairmen of the three Working Groups and the members of the editing committee. Mr Shepherd can be contacted at Miles.Shepherd@msp-ltd.co.uk .

ISO 21500 builds on the existing standards and works at the national level. It is intended to be applicable to organizations of all sizes and sectors and will be designed for relative newcomers to project management, and as a reminder for the more experienced. At present, delegations of experts selected by the national standards institutes of 31 countries are participating in the work as P (participating) members, with another 5 countries participating as O (observing) members. There is one recognized liaison participating in the ISO/PC 236 work; International Project Management Association.

ISO/PC 236 work has been organized in to three Working Groups, each one concentrating on a given area of the standard. Working group 1- Terminology (WG1) is chaired by Mrs Becky Winston, from ANSI and past chair of the PMI Board of Directors and Mr Robert Hierholtz (a PMI Volunteer Leader) from France as Secretary. Working Group 2 - Processes (WG2) is chaired by Mr Reinhard Wagner from Germany, a Board Member of IPMA-Germany, with Mr Walter Bowman, PMI Fellow, from ANSI as Secretary. Working Group 3 - Informative Guidance (WG3) is chaired by Mr Reg Sutcliffe from BSI, with Mr Nigel Blampied from ANSI as secretary. Mr Joseph Alba, also from BSI deputized for Mr Sutcliffe at the Tokyo Plenary.

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