Project management standards: strategic success factor for projects

Several project management standards (PM standards) support project management (PM) to achieve project objectives. The selection of an appropriate PM standard is a strategic decision that should be made very carefully because of its great impact on project success. The aim of this study is to analyse and compare different PM standards and to recommend how the most appropriate PM standard for specific projects can be identified. This study provides a description and a comparison of the most widely-accepted PM standards. Advantages and shortcomings of these PM standards are described and Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method is presented to identify the most appropriate PM standard. Furthermore, MCDM method is used for the case study 'dismantling of nuclear power plants' to illustrate the applicability and usefulness of the proposed approach.