WHAT IS ISO 21500 STANDARD?
ISO 21500 Project, Programme and Portfolio Management: Contexts and Concepts, is an international standard family, developed by the International Organization for Standardization, or ISO starting in 2007, released in 2012 as "Guidance on Project Management", then re-released in 2021 as a standard family, outlying context and concepts for project, programme and portfolio management guidance standards. It specifies the organizational context and underlying concepts for undertaking project, programme and portfolio management. It also provides guidance for organizations to adopt or improve project, programme and portfolio management using the standards prepared by ISO/TC 258.
Its standards (21502, 21503, 21504, 21505) are applicable to most organizations, including public and private organizations and it is not dependent on the size and type of the organization. It is also applicable to any project, programme and portfolio, regardless of complexity, size or duration.
Guidance on project, programme and portfolio management, and the governance thereof, is given in ISO 21502, ISO 21503, ISO 21504 and ISO 21505 [1].
STANDARDS UNDER ISO 21500
Other standards related to ISO 21500 are,
- ISO 21502:2020: Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on project management
- ISO 21503:2017: Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on programme management
- ISO 21504:2015: Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on portfolio management
- ISO 21505:2017: Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on governance
HISTORY AND FUTURE OF ISO 21500
ISO 21500 was developed by the International Organization for Standardization, starting in 2007, released in 2012 (ISO 21500:2012) as Guidance on Project Management, then re-released in 2021 (ISO 21500:2021) as not a Guidance on Project Management anymore, but a family of guidances.
Therefore, ISO 21500 is now replaced by ISO 21502 as the Guidance on Project Management.
CERTIFICATION
As ISO 21500 is a standard family and ISO 21500:2021 is just a short context & concepts document, it is more appropriate and meaningful to get ISO 21502 certificate for project management, or other standards under the family. (It is somewhat similar to ISO 9001 vs. ISO 9000. ISO 9000 is the standard family whereas ISO 9001 is the standard that millions of organizations get certified.)
Since ISO 21500 family standards (ISO 21502, 21503, 21504, 21505) are guidance documents, organizations can reliably opt for non-accredited certificates, declaring that they received training, tests and guides for implementation of the standard into their project management procedures. An example of such certification service (including training, tests and a non-accredited certificate itself) can be found in www.iso21502.com for project management (i.e. ISO 21502).
REFERENCES
ISO Official website: https://www.iso.org/standard/75704.html