GAPPS membership is open to any organization or government agency and maintains a listing of current members on its website Further, the GAPPS members are categorized into four distinct types:
Beginning in the mid-1990s, people who were interested in the development of global project management standards began meeting, both formally and informally, during various project management conferences. In 1999, the InternationalProject Management Association initiated a series of Global Working Parties, including one focused specifically on project management standards. The newly formed "standards working party met" at a number of project management conferences that featured international representation. During these meetings, number of initiatives were identified. One of these was the opportunity for the development of global performance based standards for project personnel that would complement existing knowledge based standards and at the same time provide a basis for transferability and mutual recognition of project management qualifications. The committee initiated development of global performance based standards for project managers, which, as a joint initiative of governments, professional associations, and corporations, provides an opportunity to:
Respond directly to the expressed needs of industry.
Enhance the profile and effectiveness of project management throughout the project management community, both globally and locally.
Increase support for project management as a field of practice and as an emerging profession.
Enhance the value and recognition of the performance based standards approach.
Following a Global Steering Committee meeting hosted by Services SETA of South Africa and held in London in August 2002, the first Working Session of the GAPPS was held in Lille, France in February 2003. Attendees at this Working Session represented member organizations including major project professional organizations such as PMI, AIPM, Singapore Society of Project Managers and the Project Management Association of Japan, government standards bodies from Australia and South Africa, academic institutions and industry. Work of the GAPPS is largely produced by globally representative volunteers, in these three-day Working Sessions which are usually held three times a year.
Objectives
According to the GAPPS website, their objectives are to:
Facilitate, develop, approve, publish, promote, maintain and review:
#global project management standards
#usage guidelines for project management standards, but
NOT consult, advise, express opinion or develop products based upon standards and guidelines
NOT provide training, assessment, certifications or qualifications to individuals based upon standards and guidelines
Approach to Standards
The GAPPS "explicitly recognises" that there are many different approaches to project management that can achieve satisfactory results and that there are many different ways for project managers to develop their competence. The GAPPS standards for qualifications of Junior Project Manager and Senior Project Manager are quite generic, though this is intentionally so, as they are written as a complement to project management standards including those of professional associations as well as other standards such as BS6079 Guide to Project Management. All of these aforementioned documents can be used in association with the GAPPS to provide further detail, knowledge, and understanding of specific applications.
Adoption of Standards
The GAPPS initiative encourages professional associations to consider adopting these standards to support existing standards and qualifications processes by adding and/or strengthening the performance based dimension. GAPPS also allows additions and modifications to be made to suit specific local and regulatory requirements. Standards and qualifications bodies are similarly encouraged to consider adopting the global performance based standards to facilitate transportability and mutual recognition of qualifications. Further, professional associations that do not have their own standards or qualifications are encouraged to adopt the standards and several associations have already begun this process. Public and private organizations are encouraged to adopt the global standards as a basis for internal development and accreditation systems that will facilitate consistency across their global operations. This also applies to organizations that only operate locally but who are required to operate, source, and assess their project management personnel in an increasingly global marketplace, where assurance of the global relevance of qualifications is of value.
Products
Since inception, the GAPPS has produced the following standards, research, and documents:
In addition to the development of performance based standards the GAPPS provides additional guidelines for their use in assessment and offers an Endorsed Provider program that provides assurance of equivalency between assessments.
