1 Scope

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Project management concepts

4.1 Overview

4.1.1 General

4.1.2 Projects

4.1.3 Project management

4.2 Context

4.2.1 Impact of a project’s context

4.2.2 Organizational strategy and projects

4.2.3 Customer and supplier perspective

4.2.4 Project constraints

4.2.5 Projects as stand-alone, part of a programme or part of a portfolio

4.3 Project governance

4.3.1 Governance framework

4.3.2 Business case

4.4 Project life cycle

4.5 Project organization and roles

4.5.1 Project organization

4.5.2 Sponsoring organization

4.5.3 Project board

4.5.4 Project sponsor

4.5.5 Project assurance

4.5.6 Project manager

4.5.7 Project office

4.5.8 Work package leader

4.5.9 Project team members

4.5.10 Project stakeholders

4.5.11 Other roles

4.6 Competencies of project personnel

5 Prerequisites for formalizing project management

5.1 Overview

5.2 Considerations for implementing project management

5.3 Continuous improvement of the project management environment

5.4 Alignment with organizational processes and systems

6 Integrated project management practices

6.1 Overview

6.2 Pre-project activities

6.3 Overseeing a project

6.4 Directing a project

6.5 Initiating a project

6.5.1 Overview

6.5.2 Project team mobilization

6.5.3 Project governance and management approach

6.5.4 Initial project justification

6.5.5 Initial project planning

6.6 Controlling a project

6.6.1 Overview

6.6.2 Progressive justification

6.6.3 Managing project performance

6.6.4 Managing the start and close of each project phase

6.6.5 Managing the start, progress and close of each work package

6.7 Managing delivery

6.8 Closing or terminating a project

6.9 Post-project activities

7 Management practices for a project

7.1 Overview

7.2 Planning

7.2.1 Overview

7.2.2 Developing the plan

7.2.3 Monitoring the plan

7.3 Benefit management

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Identifying and analysing benefits

7.3.3 Monitoring benefits

7.3.4 Maintaining benefits

7.4 Scope management

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 Defining the scope

7.4.3 Controlling the scope

7.4.4 Confirming scope delivery

7.5 Resources management

7.5.1 Overview

7.5.2 Planning the project organization

7.5.3 Establishing the team

7.5.4 Developing the team

7.5.5 Managing the team

7.5.6 Planning, managing and controlling physical and material resources

7.6 Schedule management

7.6.1 Overview

7.6.2 Estimating activity durations

7.6.3 Developing the schedule

7.6.4 Controlling the schedule

7.7 Cost management

7.7.1 Overview

7.7.2 Estimating cost

7.7.3 Developing the budget

7.7.4 Controlling costs

7.8 Risk management

7.8.1 Overview

7.8.2 Identifying risk

7.8.3 Assessing risk

7.8.4 Treating risk

7.8.5 Controlling risk

7.9 Issues management

7.9.1 Overview

7.9.2 Identifying issues

7.9.3 Resolving issues

7.10 Change control

7.10.1 Overview

7.10.2 Establishing a change control framework

7.10.3 Identifying and assessing change requests

7.10.4 Planning the implementation of change requests

7.10.5 Implementing and closing change requests

7.11 Quality management

7.11.1 Overview

7.11.2 Planning quality

7.11.3 Assuring quality

7.11.4 Controlling quality

7.12 Stakeholder engagement

7.12.1 Overview

7.12.2 Identifying stakeholders

7.12.3 Engaging stakeholders

7.13 Communication management

7.13.1 Overview

7.13.2 Planning communication

7.13.3 Distributing information

7.13.4 Monitoring the impact of communications

7.14 Managing organizational and societal change

7.14.1 Overview

7.14.2 Identifying the need for change

7.14.3 Implementing the organizational and societal change

7.15 Reporting

7.15.1 Overview

7.15.2 Planning reporting

7.15.3 Managing reporting

7.15.4 Delivering reports

7.16 Information and documentation management

7.16.1 Overview

7.16.2 Identifying which information should be managed

7.16.3 Storing and retrieving information and documentation

7.17 Procurement

7.17.1 Overview

7.17.2 Planning procurement

7.17.3 Evaluating and selecting suppliers

7.17.4 Administering contracts

7.17.5 Closing contracts

7.18 Lessons learned

7.18.1 Overview

7.18.2 Identifying lessons

7.18.3 Disseminating lessons

Annex A (informative) Project management processes based on practices

Bibliography

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ISO 21502:2020(en)

	International Standard ISO 21502
Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on project management Management de projets, programmes et portefeuilles — Recommandations sur le management de projets Reference number ISO 21502:2020(en)	First edition 2020-12 © ISO 2020

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ISO 21502:2020(en)

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address below or ISO’s member body in the country of the requester.

ISO copyright office

CP 401 • Ch. de Blandonnet 8

CH-1214 Vernier, Geneva

Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11

E-mail copyright@iso.org

Website www.iso.org

Published in Switzerland

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ISO 21502:2020(en)

ContentsPage

Foreword

Introduction

1 Scope

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Project management concepts

4.1 Overview

4.1.1 General

4.1.2 Projects

4.1.3 Project management

4.2 Context

4.2.1 Impact of a project’s context

4.2.2 Organizational strategy and projects

4.2.3 Customer and supplier perspective

4.2.4 Project constraints

4.2.5 Projects as stand-alone, part of a programme or part of a portfolio

4.3 Project governance

4.3.1 Governance framework

4.3.2 Business case

4.4 Project life cycle

4.5 Project organization and roles

4.5.1 Project organization

4.5.2 Sponsoring organization

4.5.3 Project board

4.5.4 Project sponsor

4.5.5 Project assurance

4.5.6 Project manager

4.5.7 Project office

4.5.8 Work package leader

4.5.9 Project team members

4.5.10 Project stakeholders

4.5.11 Other roles

4.6 Competencies of project personnel

5 Prerequisites for formalizing project management

5.1 Overview

5.2 Considerations for implementing project management

5.3 Continuous improvement of the project management environment

5.4 Alignment with organizational processes and systems

6 Integrated project management practices

6.1 Overview

6.2 Pre-project activities

6.3 Overseeing a project

6.4 Directing a project

6.5 Initiating a project

6.5.1 Overview

6.5.2 Project team mobilization

6.5.3 Project governance and management approach

6.5.4 Initial project justification

6.5.5 Initial project planning

6.6 Controlling a project

6.6.1 Overview

6.6.2 Progressive justification

6.6.3 Managing project performance

6.6.4 Managing the start and close of each project phase

6.6.5 Managing the start, progress and close of each work package

6.7 Managing delivery

6.8 Closing or terminating a project

6.9 Post-project activities

7 Management practices for a project

7.1 Overview

7.2 Planning

7.2.1 Overview

7.2.2 Developing the plan

7.2.3 Monitoring the plan

7.3 Benefit management

7.3.1 Overview

7.3.2 Identifying and analysing benefits

7.3.3 Monitoring benefits

7.3.4 Maintaining benefits

7.4 Scope management

7.4.1 Overview

7.4.2 Defining the scope

7.4.3 Controlling the scope

7.4.4 Confirming scope delivery

7.5 Resources management

7.5.1 Overview

7.5.2 Planning the project organization

7.5.3 Establishing the team

7.5.4 Developing the team

7.5.5 Managing the team

7.5.6 Planning, managing and controlling physical and material resources

7.6 Schedule management

7.6.1 Overview

7.6.2 Estimating activity durations

7.6.3 Developing the schedule

7.6.4 Controlling the schedule

7.7 Cost management

7.7.1 Overview

7.7.2 Estimating cost

7.7.3 Developing the budget

7.7.4 Controlling costs

7.8 Risk management

7.8.1 Overview

7.8.2 Identifying risk

7.8.3 Assessing risk

7.8.4 Treating risk

7.8.5 Controlling risk

7.9 Issues management

7.9.1 Overview

7.9.2 Identifying issues

7.9.3 Resolving issues

7.10 Change control

7.10.1 Overview

7.10.2 Establishing a change control framework

7.10.3 Identifying and assessing change requests

7.10.4 Planning the implementation of change requests

7.10.5 Implementing and closing change requests

7.11 Quality management

7.11.1 Overview

7.11.2 Planning quality

7.11.3 Assuring quality

7.11.4 Controlling quality

7.12 Stakeholder engagement

7.12.1 Overview

7.12.2 Identifying stakeholders

7.12.3 Engaging stakeholders

7.13 Communication management

7.13.1 Overview

7.13.2 Planning communication

7.13.3 Distributing information

7.13.4 Monitoring the impact of communications

7.14 Managing organizational and societal change

7.14.1 Overview

7.14.2 Identifying the need for change

7.14.3 Implementing the organizational and societal change

7.15 Reporting

7.15.1 Overview

7.15.2 Planning reporting

7.15.3 Managing reporting

7.15.4 Delivering reports

7.16 Information and documentation management

7.16.1 Overview

7.16.2 Identifying which information should be managed

7.16.3 Storing and retrieving information and documentation

7.17 Procurement

7.17.1 Overview

7.17.2 Planning procurement

7.17.3 Evaluating and selecting suppliers

7.17.4 Administering contracts

7.17.5 Closing contracts

7.18 Lessons learned

7.18.1 Overview

7.18.2 Identifying lessons

7.18.3 Disseminating lessons

Annex A (informative) Project management processes based on practices

Bibliography

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www.iso.org/patents).

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html.

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 258, Project, programme and portfolio management.

This first edition of ISO 21502, together with ISO 21500:—1, cancels and replaces ISO 21500:2012, which has been technically revised. The main changes compared with ISO 21500:2012 are as follows:

the concept of project management has been expanded to include project-related oversight and direction activities of the sponsoring organization;

information about how projects can deliver outcomes and enable the realization of benefits has been added;

consideration of the organizational context of projects has been added;

descriptions of additional project roles and responsibilities have been added;

new topics have been added, such as creating a project environment that is conducive to success, project life cycles, decision points and gates, and additional project practices, such as benefits management and change control, to reflect current practices in project management;

pre- and post-project activities have been added;

the format has been changed from process-based to practices and narrative-based (see Annex A for details).

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html.

Introduction

This document provides guidance on concepts and practices for project management that are important for and have an impact on a project’s successful delivery.

The target readership for this document includes, but is not limited to:

executive and senior management, to provide a better understanding of project management and to help them to give appropriate support and guidance to project managers and those individuals working on projects;

individuals involved in the governance, direction, assurance, audit and management of projects, such as project sponsors, project boards, auditors and project managers;

project managers and project team members, to have a common basis upon which to understand, conduct, compare, evaluate and communicate the practices used on their project;

developers of national or organizational project management standards, processes and methods.

In addition, this document can also be useful to individuals involved in supporting:

—

the governance, direction and management of portfolios and programmes;

—

project teams, programme and project offices or similar organizational structures;

—

the academic study of project, programme and portfolio management;

—

functions related to the management of projects, such as finance, accounting, human resource management, procurement and legal.

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ISO 21502:2020(en)

International StandardISO 21502:2020(en)

Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on project management

1Scope

This document gives guidelines for project management. It is applicable to any organization, including public, private and charitable, as well as to any type of project, regardless of purpose, delivery approaches, life cycle model used, complexity, size, cost or duration.

NOTEDelivery approach can be any method or process suited to the type of outputs, such as predictive, incremental, iterative, adaptive or hybrid, including agile approaches.

This document provides high-level descriptions of practices that are considered to work well and produce good results within the context of project management. This document does not provide guidance on the management of programmes or portfolios. Topics relating to general management are addressed only within the context of project management.

2Normative references

There are no normative references in this document.

3Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

—

ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp

—

IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/

3.1

baseline

reference basis for comparison against which performance is monitored and controlled

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.5]

3.2

benefit

created advantage, value or other positive effect

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.6]

3.3

business case

documented justification to support decision making about the commitment to a project (3.20), programme (3.18) or portfolio (3.15)

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.8]

3.4

change request

documentation that defines a proposed alteration to a project (3.20)

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.10]

3.5

configuration management

application of procedures to control (3.6), correlate and maintain documentation, specifications and physical attributes

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.12]

3.6

control

comparison of actual performance with planned performance, analysing variances and taking appropriate corrective and preventive action (3.17) as needed

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.13]

3.7

corrective action

direction and activity for modifying the performance of work to bring performance in line with a plan

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.15]

3.8

critical path

sequence of activities that determine the earliest possible completion date for a project (3.20) or phase

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.18]

3.9

deliverable

unique and verifiable element that is required to be produced by a project (3.20)

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.19, modified — The words “tangible or intangible outcome of a planned activity” have been replaced by “element that is required to be produced by a project”.]

3.10

governance

principles, policies and framework by which an organization is directed and controlled

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.25]

3.11

issue

event that arises during a project (3.20) requiring resolution for the project to proceed

3.12

opportunity

risk occurrence that would have a favourable impact

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.36]

3.13

outcome

change resulting from the use of the output (3.14) from a project (3.20)

3.14

output

aggregated tangible or intangible deliverables (3.9) that form the project (3.20) result

3.15

portfolio

collection of portfolio components (3.16) grouped together to facilitate their management to meet strategic objectives

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.42]

3.16

portfolio component

project (3.20), programme (3.18), portfolio (3.15) or other related work

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.43]

3.17

preventive action

action to eliminate the cause of a potential nonconformity or other potential undesirable situation

Note 1 to entry: Preventive action is taken to prevent occurrence whereas corrective action (3.7) is taken to prevent recurrence.

[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.12.1, modified — The original Note 1 to entry has been deleted.]

3.18

programme

group of programme components (3.19) managed in a coordinated way to realize benefits (3.2)

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.50]

3.19

programme component

project (3.20), programme (3.18) or other related work

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.52]

3.20

project

temporary endeavour to achieve one or more defined objectives

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.59, modified — The words “created to produce agreed deliverables” have been replaced by “to achieve one or more defined objectives”.]

3.21

project assurance

planned and systematic actions necessary to provide confidence to the sponsoring organization and project sponsor (3.26) that a project (3.20) is likely to achieve its objectives

3.22

project governance

principles, policies and procedures by which a project (3.20) is authorized and directed to accomplish agreed objectives

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.60]

3.23

project life cycle

defined set of phases from the start to the end of a project (3.20)

3.24

project management

coordinated activities to direct and control (3.6) the accomplishment of agreed objectives

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.61, modified — The word “deliverables” has been replaced by “objectives”.]

3.25

project scope

authorized work to accomplish agreed objectives

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.65, modified — The word “deliverables” has been replaced by “objectives”.]

3.26

sponsor

person responsible for obtaining the resources and executive decisions to enable success

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.78]

3.27

stakeholder

person, group or organization that has interests in, or can affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by, any aspect of a project (3.20), programme (3.18) or portfolio (3.15)

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.79]

3.28

threat

risk occurrence that would have a negative impact

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.83]

3.29

work breakdown structure

decomposition of the defined scope of a project (3.20) or programme (3.18) into progressively lower levels consisting of elements of work

[SOURCE: ISO/TR 21506:2018, 3.87]

3.30

work package

group of activities that have a defined scope, deliverable (3.9), timescale and cost

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Bibliography

[1]		ISO 9000:2015, Quality management systems — Fundamentals and vocabulary
[2]		ISO 21503, Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on programme management
[3]		ISO 21504, Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on portfolio management
[4]		ISO 21505, Project, programme and portfolio management — Guidance on governance
[5]		ISO/TR 21506:2018, Project, programme and portfolio management — Vocabulary
[6]		ISO 21508, Earned value management in project and programme management
[7]		ISO 21511, Work breakdown structures for project and programme management
[8]		ISO 55000, Asset management — Overview, principles and terminology

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ICS 03.100.40 Price based on 52 pages © ISO 2020All rights reserved	iso.org

1 Under preparation. Stage at the time of publication: ISO/DIS 21500:2020.