The purpose of this paper is to find the impact of standards on Project Portfolio management and its importance for project management practitioners. For this purpose this work compares Standard Documents of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) from Project Management Institute (PMI^®) and Association of Project Management (APM^®) under the framework of Standard definitions.

The research was conducted using a qualitative research method. A total of three standard documents, which includes Project Management Standard Institute, Association of Project management (Portfolio), and Gower hand book, reviewed. In addition it figured out a comprehensive characteristic of standard by reviewing both technical and management standard definition from different authors and organization such as ISO, ETSI.

A literature survey shows that while addressing project management standards, there are two main concepts mentioned which are best practices and standard. Best practices come as a result of the actions done in a specific situation, time and conditions. While standards do not guarantee full success and the consequence of following a standard is not clear, best practices are real evidence of success

Through our research we found a reference for standards which has nine characteristics which includes: (1) is Abstract, (2) contains technical specifications, (3) is useful, (4) is accepted, (5) is available, (6) is universal, (7) is subject to evolution, (8) is documented, (9) is not compulsory

We conclude that there is evidence showing that PMI and APM standards fulfil these characteristics.

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About the Author Amir Hossein Fazel Bakhsheshi Amir Hossein Fazel Bakhshehsi is currently in the last year of Msc in project management at Norwegian University of Science and technology. Currently he is doing his masters thesis on improving Risk management At Statoil Hydro (a well-known Oil & Gas Company in Norway). His fields of interests in project management are Project Risk management, Project Communication management and Project Portfolio Management. Before he joined NTNU, He has worked as a project planner and controller nearly 2 years in Oil & Gas and Telecommunication companies. This author can be contacted at: Amirhoss@stud.ntnu.no