The Technical Committee (TC) 258 of ISO that is concerned with standards in the field of project, programme and portfolio management held its annual meeting in Toronto. More than 60 delegates from about 20 countries discussed the actual status of their work programme, future activities and further advanced the current projects. After publication of ISO21500 Guidance on project management in the year 2012 and the release of ISO 21504 Guidance on portfolio management this July, the TC is working on three issues: WG2 is currently working on ISO 21505 Governance for projects, programmes and portfolios. The team did not meet in Toronto, because the Draft International Standard (DIS) is still out for comments, it will be moved forward during a meeting in November at Buenos Aires. WG3 is concerned with vocabulary for project, programme and portfolio management. The team continued to work on a first draft list of terms in Toronto. It needs to be decided, whether this documents will be published as an International Standard or rather an internal document for the TC. WG4 is working on the future ISO21503 Guidance on programme management. The team accomplished to adjudicate all comments received on the Committee Draft (CD) and will potentially meet next spring in Cameroun for further developing the standard. Publication may be late 2016 or beginning of 2017. Furthermore, a new Study Group was formed in Toronto, to analyse the need for a revision of ISO 21500. The revision is due 2017, but the participants of this group are analysing the usage of ISO 21500, the content and what could be improved. During the plenary meeting the TC also decided to update the Business Plan after its initiation June 2011, including strategic directions and a work plan with future projects.

ISO TC 258 Toronto plenary participants, August 2015

Photo courtesy Jouko Vaskimo