Since its founding in 1969, the Project Management Institute (PMI, www.pmi.org) has grown to be the organization of choice for project management professionalism. With nearly 300,000 members worldwide in over 170 countries, PMI is the largest and leading non-profit professional association in the area of project management, dedicated to the development of the project management profession.
PMI sets industry standards for project management, provides seminars and educational programs, conducts research and provides professional certification and exchange opportunities designed to strengthen and further establish the profession. PMI advances the careers of practitioners, while enhancing overall business and government performance.
Headquarters are in the USA, with a service centre for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) in Brussels. PMI is also structured in local Chapters in countries, and into Communities of Practice (CoPs). A CoP focuses on project management topics related to its industry or interest area whereas PMI Chapters are geographically based groups of project management professionals. There are today more than 250 Chapters in more than 70 countries worldwide.
Communities of Practice have evolved out of the earlier Specific Interest Groups (SIGs) and PMI Colleges, and are industry- or interest-based PMI initiatives, where PMI members meet online, discuss ideas and build the body of knowledge. A CoP enables them to collaborate with peers worldwide to find solutions that meet their needs and advance the profession.
Initially there were 30 SIGs and two Colleges. There are currently more than 10 CoPS and this number is growing as SIGs transition to a Community of Practice. Examples of current CoPs are:
- Agile
- Consulting
- Government
- International Development
- Learning, Education and Development (LEAD)
- Organizational Project Management
- Project Human Resource Management
- Project Management Global Sustainability
- Retail
- Project Risk Management
- Utility