In 2007 the British Standards Institute BSI initiated the development of an international standard on project management, which was finalized and published 2012 as ISO 21500 Guidance on project management. This was only a beginning. All participants of that committee as well as IPMA as Category A Liaison expressed their interest to continue the journey. Consequently, a new Technical Committee was formed, the ISO/TC 258 Project, Programme and Portfolio Management, aiming at developing standards in the field of project, programme and portfolio management. One of the first projects was a guidance standard on portfolio management. It is different to ISO 21500. The target audiences are not primarily the practitioners, but executives and senior managers responsible for setting and implementing organizational strategy and business planning; decision makers responsible for selecting, authorizing and governing projects, programmes and portfolios; teams and individuals responsible for implementing and managing the project and programme portfolios; as well as project and programme managers and other stakeholders

An additional distinction between ISO 21500 and ISO 21504 is that the latter does not follow the process approach with input and output relations (like other national and international portfolio management standards do). This is why the main content of the standard is not a detailed process model but terms and definitions; prerequisites for portfolio management, managing portfolios and governance of portfolios (in an Annex).

ISO 21504 defines a portfolio as collection of portfolio components grouped together to facilitate their management to meet, in whole or in part, an organization’s strategic objectives. The components could be projects, programmes, (sub) portfolios and other related work. Portfolio management should include a set of interrelated organizational processes and methods by which an organization allocates resources to implement its strategic objectives. It aligns the portfolio components with an organization’s strategic objectives, stakeholder priorities, and values such as sustainable practices and ethical principles. Portfolio components should be continuously identified, evaluated, selected, and authorized; and the status and performance of the portfolio regularly reported to manage the portfolio effectively. Further, continuous alignment of the portfolio with business strategies and objectives as well as evaluation and control of the balance of the portfolio against a number of criteria should be maintained.

This international standard is neither intended to replace other (national and international) standards nor act as baseline for certification of organisations. It seeks for harmonisation throughout the profession and encourages users to develop their own, individual approaches based on this guidance. IPMA is focussing on competence-based standards. The IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (IPMA ICB®) in the new version 4.0 will be published in Panama end of September. It defines competences for people acting in the domains project, programme and portfolio management. Thus, it complements ISO 21504 and will act as basis for qualification and certification of portfolio managers. Furthermore, the IPMA Organisational Competence Baseline (IPMA OCB®) explains the interrelations between project, programme and portfolio management based on international guidance such as the ISO standards.

ISO/TC258 is actually working on four projects, one of which is aiming at a guidance standard for programme management (future ISO 21503), another is developing an international standard on governance for projects, programmes and portfolios. A project is elaborating on terminology in the field of projects, programmes and portfolios and finally, a study group prepares the revision of ISO 21500 in the year 2017.