Introduction
The BSI – British Standards Institution – has developed and published a set of project management standards.
These BS standards co-exist with others like the PMBOK Guide from which earlier versions were recognized as standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) which assigns standards in the United States (ANSI/PMI 99-001-2008) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE 1490-2011).
The principles provided in the BS 6079 standard are as relevant to small organizations and for small projects as they are to major organizations with multimillion pound projects spanning several years.
The BS 6079 Project Management Standard
BS 6079 is issued in four parts:
• Part 1: Guide to project management
• Part 2: Project management vocabulary
• Part 3: Guide to the management of business related project risk
• Part 4: Guide to project management in the construction industry.
Each part addresses a particular section of the project management discipline.
About BSI
The BSI – British Standards Institution – finds its origin in 1901 at the construction of the London Tower Bridge.
On 22 April 1929, the Engineering Standards Committee, (since 1918 the British Engineering Standards Association) was granted a Royal Charter. A supplemental Charter was granted in 1931 changing the name, finally, to The British Standards Institution.
1946 saw the first ever Commonwealth Standards Conference, held in London and organized by BSI, which led to the establishment of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Final note
In 2012 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the ISO 21500 Guidance on project management. We wrote an article about the comparison of ISO 21500 and PMBOK Guide Fifth Edition.