ISO/TC 258 Business Plan

Date: 03/02/2012
Version:
Approved
Page:
1

BUSINESS PLAN
ISO/TC 258
Project, programme and portfolio management
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The scope of ISO/TC 258 is: Standardization within the field of Project, Programme and Portfolio
Management
Project, programme and portfolio management is the set of management techniques, methods,
and approaches that allow organizations to connect their objectives to successful projects.
The deliverable of ISO/TC 258 is a family of standards in the field of project, programme, and
portfolio management which will enable an organizations continuous improvement, better
resource utilization, and achievement of organizational objectives. Project, programme and
portfolio management standards have broad application for any organization in any sector.
The overall objectives of ISO/TC 258 are:

produce standards that address the needs of organizations, their customers and other
stakeholders in the field of project, programme, and portfolio management;
support, maintain and improve developed project, programme, portfolio management
standards;

The standards developed by ISO/TC 258 are not intended to be used for certification or regulatory
purposes.

INTRODUCTION

1.1

ISO technical committees and business planning

The extension of formal business planning to ISO Technical Committees (ISO/TCs) is an important
measure which forms part of a major review of business. The aim is to align the ISO work
programme with expressed business environment needs and trends and to allow ISO/TCs to
prioritize among different projects, to identify the benefits expected from the availability of
International Standards, and to ensure adequate resources for projects throughout their
development.
1.2

International standardization and the role of ISO

The foremost aim of international standardization is to facilitate the exchange of goods and
services through the elimination of technical barriers to trade.
Three bodies are responsible for the planning, development and adoption of International
Standards: ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is responsible for all sectors
excluding Electrotechnical, which is the responsibility of IEC (International Electrotechnical
Committee), and most of the Telecommunications Technologies, which are largely the
responsibility of ITU (International Telecommunication Union).

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ISO is a legal association, the members of which are the National Standards Bodies (NSBs) of
some 140 countries (organizations representing social and economic interests at the international
level), supported by a Central Secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland.
The principal deliverable of ISO is the International Standard.
An International Standard embodies the essential principles of global openness and transparency,
consensus and technical coherence. These are safeguarded through its development in an ISO
Technical Committee (ISO/TC), representative of all interested parties, supported by a public
comment phase (the ISO Technical Enquiry). ISO and its Technical Committees are also able to
offer the ISO Technical Specification (ISO/TS), the ISO Public Available Specification (ISO/PAS)
and the ISO Technical Report (ISO/TR) as solutions to market needs. These ISO products
represent lower levels of consensus and have therefore not the same status as an International
Standard.
ISO offers also the International Workshop Agreement (IWA) as a deliverable which aims to bridge
the gap between the activities of consortia and the formal process of standardization represented
by ISO and its national members. An important distinction is that the IWA is developed by ISO
workshops and fora, comprising only participants with direct interest, and so it is not accorded the
status of an International Standard.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT OF THE ISO/TC

2.1

Description of the Business Environment

The following political, economic, technical, regulatory, legal and social dynamics describe the
business environment of the industry sector, products, materials, disciplines or practices related to
the scope of this ISO/TC, and they may significantly influence how the relevant standards
development processes are conducted and the content of the resulting standards:
Project, programme, and portfolio management are management approaches that allow
organizations to achieve the following:

Gain competitive advantage

Respond quickly to changing business environments
Optimize use of resource
Manage organisational change
Adhere to socio-economic, sustainability and environmental responsibilities
Obtain an enterprise view of what the organization is undertaking to feed strategic planning
for the future
Connect their organizational strategy to the collective and related benefits

On a global scale organisations are experiencing the following:

Increasing customer and stakeholder expectations relating to the variety, functionality,

availability, quality, and cost of products and services
Increasing collaboration through projects on a global scale
Increasing number of national, sector specific and organisational standards
the lack of international standards for project, program and portfolio management

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2.2

Quantitative Indicators of the Business Environment

The following list of quantitative indicators describes the business environment in order to provide
adequate information to support actions of the ISO/TC:
There are multiple indicators of the breadth of interest and demand for project management as a
professional field. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit Views Wire, over 20 million people
worldwide work on project teams, and 20% of global GDP (USD $13 trillion in 2010) is spent on
fixed capital projects. This $13 trillion figure represents gross fixed capital formation: land
improvements, building construction, machinery and equipment purchases; and the construction of
roads, railways, etc. and does not include large domains of private investment, such as the billions
of dollars spent on IT software and services, new product development in all industries, new
business processes, and on media production and other forms of intellectual property.
Furthermore, this figure is projected to increase to USD $17 trillion by the end of 2013.
A 2008 study by the Anderson Economic Group (and commissioned by PMI) shows that in 2006
there were over 24.4 million employees participating in projects (the projects individually or as part
of either a programme or a portfolio) in industries in 11 major global economies, and by 2016 there
will be enough demand to support a total of 32.6 million employees in industries in these same
countries. Among these 11 leading economies, total GDP will rise from $7 trillion to $11.5 trillion
by 2016, but that up to $194 billion of that growth is at risk due to a project management skills
shortage.

BENEFITS EXPECTED FROM THE WORK OF THE ISO/TC

There are multiple benefits for a wide variety of stakeholders such as organisations performing
projects, programmes and portfolios; customers using the respective deliverables; practitioners in
the field of project, programme and portfolio management; certification bodies; professional
associations; research and educational institutions; National Standardisation Bodies and ISO.
Benefits include but are not restricted to:

Improve the performance of projects, programmes and portfolios;

Improve organizational efficiency and effectiveness;
Better alignment of national standards and sector-specific guidance
Improve collaboration and communication on global scale
Expand knowledge base
Improves tendering and supplier selection and integration
Less efforts in developing project, programme and portfolio management
Increased mobility and employability of users
Advance the profession
Increased business opportunities

REPRESENTATION AND PARTICIPATION IN THE ISO/TC

4.1 Countries/ISO members bodies that are P and O members of the ISO committee
ISO/TC 258 supports the broadest possible participation of ISO members,.
A list of current members of TC258 may be found at
http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink?func=Committees.memberslist&objid=10286597&sortcol=lastna
me

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4.2

Analysis of the participation

As project, programme, and portfolio management continue to gain recognition and adoption in all
sectors of the economy, member countries and liaison participation in ISO/TC 258 is expected to
increase.
At the start of TC258, there was another committee PC236 which had 37 participating members,
15 observing members,and one liaison. PC236 is the committee developing ISO 21500
Guidance on Project Management. Upon the completion of ISO21500, PC236 will propose to
move the maintenance of that standard to TC258.
As of the second plenary, ISO/TC 258 has 31 P-member (participating) and 5O-member
(observing) countries, and two liaisons. Many participating members routinely send multiple
delegates to the plenary meetings, implying significant interest and the ability to support multiple
work items.
ISO/TC 258 encourages participation from all countries with emphasis on those countries that
have not been able to contribute to standards development in the past.

OBJECTIVES OF THE ISO/TC AND STRATEGIES FOR THEIR

ACHIEVEMENT

5.1

Defined objectives of the ISO/TC

The overall objectives of ISO/TC 258 are to:

produce ISO deliverables that address the needs of organizations of all sizes including
small- and medium-sized business, their customers and other stakeholders in the field of
project, programme, and portfolio management;
support, maintain and improve developed project, programme, portfolio management
standards, and other ISO deliverables within the scope of TC258.
Identified strategies to achieve the ISO/TCs defined objectives

5.2

Initially, the TC will consider development of work items described in Annex A. Additional in-scope
New Work Item Proposals may be considered, and if accepted, added to Annex A. ISO/TC 258 is
anticipated to include a Working Group for each chartered work item.
The standards developed by ISO/TC 258 are not intended to be used for certification or regulatory
purposes.
In order to achieve its objectives, ISO/TC 258 shall:

meet and communicate regularly to accomplish work in different participating countries;

maintain the integrity of its products by improving the review process;
encourage the participation and consensus building of all relevant parties and facilitate
their active involvement in decision making processes;
encourage and develop group discussion processes that lead to consensus building;
continually improve ISO/TC 258 operations;
capture and disseminate the experience and technical knowledge of subject matter experts
participating in the development of project, programme, and portfolio management
standards;
liaise with other TCs and PCs to offer improvement to assist with the development of
generic or specific project, programme, and portfolio management standards.

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FACTORS AFFECTING COMPLETION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE

ISO/TC WORK PROGRAMME

The success of ISO/TC 258 depends on the ability of the member bodies to staff the key working
groups with knowledgeable experts from a wide range of their national constituencies. The diverse
views of all participants will produce a set of well-formulated standards that will account for the
views of all prospective standards users.

STRUCTURE, CURRENT PROJECTS AND PUBLICATIONS OF THE ISO/TC

This section gives an overview of the ISO/TCs structure, scopes of the ISO/TCs and any existing
subcommittees and information on existing and planned standardization projects, publication of
the ISO/TC and its subcommittees.
7.1 Structure of the ISO committee
7.2 Current projects of the ISO technical committee and its subcommittees
7.3 Publications of the ISO technical committee and its subcommittees

Reference information
Glossary of terms and abbreviations used in ISO/TC Business Plans
General information on the principles of ISO's technical work

ISO/TC258 Business Plan 3 February 2012