2 management - School of International Business and ...

191 Project Management
1 STANDARDS AND PROCEDURAL
MODELS IN INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
1.1 STANDARDS IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
At this point, one always hears the call for project management standards. The main focus of
these standardization efforts is directed to basic scheduling, budgeting or reporting. But due to
the cultural differences, there is always a need for adjustment of what is expected from project
management. These differences are made especially clear if one looks at the projects in various
cultural circles. In countries which are highly oriented towards consensus (e.g. Southeast Asia),
significantly more time is needed for the planning phase of a project, which can result in a more
intensive use of planning procedures. Western European project managers have greater trust
in the skills of their employees and see themselves more as coaches, while their American col-
leagues take a much greater leadership role in projects, and push to the implementation phase
through streamlined decision-making processes. These experiences point out how difficult it is to
introduce standards for international project management. Despite this, every international proj-
ect needs a working platform in order to prevent misunderstandings and create effective collabo-
ration. All those involved in the project must conform to this platform. But the project management
world is not totally without standards.
The most-common quasi standards in project management are presented below:
National Rules
DIN 69900 to 69905 (http://www2.din.de)
For the Federal Republic of Germany, the standards handed down by the Deutsches Institut fuer
Normung e.V. (DIN) are compulsory.
Project Manager GPM (http://www.gpm-ipma.de)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Projektmanagement e.V. (GPM, or German Society for Project
Management) is an expert and professional association which is tasked with developing stan-
dards for methods, terms, education and certification.
International Rules
International Competence-Baseline (ICB) of the IPMA (http://www.ipma.ch)
The International Project Management Association (IPMA) issues the International Competence
Baseline (ICB), which is currently the most important European guideline for uniform terms in
English, German and French .
Project Management Body of Knowledge of the PMI (http://www.PMI.org)
The Project Management Institute (PMI) gathers practical knowledge from project managers