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= International Project Management Association (IPMA) = Today, IPMA is a strong network of more than seventy project management associations spread all around the world promoting competence throughout society to enable a world in which all projects succeed. The International Project Management Association (IPMA) is a Swiss-based organization dedicated to the development and promotion of project management. It is organized as an international federation of more than 70 national management and project management associations. Its main activity is the certification of the competences in the direction of projects. Up to now, it has developed a certification framework for project management skills: the IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB), which serves as the basis for its four-level certification program. The certification is carried out through any of the national associations, and it is necessary to renew it from time to time (the period varies depending on the certification level). The certification covers technical, contextual and behavioral competencies. By the end of 2016 there were approximately 200 000 IPMA certified professionals worldwide, 90 000 of whom were at advanced levels of competence (IPMA levels A, B or C). Contents 1 History 2 Member associations 3 Certification 4 Standards 5 Awards 6 References

History
The origin of the IPMA dates back to 1964 when an international group of project managers met to discuss the benefits of the critical path method. The group was then called the INTERNET (International NETwork). In 1965, the IPMA was founded in Switzerland by the IPMA under the name IMSA (International Management Systems Association). The first international congress took place in 1967 in Vienna, with participants from 30 different countries.

Levels of certification
IPMA certification started in 1998, the same year the first version of ICB was published (v.1.0). Today, more than ever, everyone is demanding improved results from their project, programme, and portfolio initiatives. Many are now beginning to understand the importance of broad competences, that include behavioral and contextual areas. IPMA encourages a range of practitioner roles to explore essential knowledge foundations, then expand beyond knowledge, to achieve PM competence, and project success. The IPMA establishes four levels of competence in the direction of projects, each of which are certifiable through the corresponding certification. The levels of certification ordered from lower to higher level of competence are as follows: IPMA Level D (Certified Project Management Associate) IPMA Level C (Certified Project Manager) IPMA Level B (Certified Senior Project Manager) IPMA Level A (Certified Projects Director)

The IPMA certification is recognised worldwide. Global corporations benefit from IPMA’s international presence and recognition. We enable them to use the same certification for the entire company in all countries. The examination process has no language barriers. Candidates always have the choice of doing the certification in their own language or in English. No matter where you live or what language you speak, you are always welcome to certify your competence with IPMA.

Member associations
There are 70 member associations of IPMA in the five continents Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania.

Standards
Standards are essential in an increasing complex world. They should enable collaboration within and across organisations in order to improve effectiveness and efficiency in project related activities. Globalization forces a lot of organisations to undertake projects in an multi-national and cross-cultural context. Thus, standards should give guidance for people to involved in such activities. IPMA and its Member Associations are involved in standardisation since the late 1960s. Besides developing its own global standards IPMA is engaged as category A liaison in ISO Committees for Project, Programme and Portfolio Management and actively participates in the work being performed. Furthermore, IPMA is a full member of the Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS), which provides independent reference benchmarks for project management standards and assessments.

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IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (IPMA ICB ®) ===== The core standard of IPMA is the IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (ICB), now available in Version 4.0. Various stakeholders, managers and team members of projects, programmes and portfolios are using the ICB for their competence development. Within the IPMA 4-Level-Certification system, the IPMA ICB serves as the baseline for assessments. Furthermore, it can be used as a guide for consultants, trainers, lecturers and researchers.

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IPMA Organisational Competence Baseline (IPMA OCB ®) ===== IPMA Organisational Competence Baseline (IPMA OCB) introduces the concept of organisational competence in managing projects. It is a holistic approach for organisations to strengthen their management of projects, programmes and portfolios. IPMA OCB offers insights for all organisations interested in understanding how to improve the ways projects, programmes and portfolios are managed in an organisation.

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IPMA Project Excellence Baseline ® (IPMA PEB) ===== IPMA Project Excellence Baseline (IPMA PEB), aims at promoting competence in managing projects and programmes complementing our previous standards for individual competences (ICB) and organisational competences in managing projects (IPMA OCB). We now expect every excellent project to consider sustainability and environment with a long term perspective not as an option but rather as a default. In other words, IPMA have moved away from the past practice of allowing each project to decide what is in scope or not to a more normative approach of telling that considerations about sustainability and impact on the environment is a prerequisite for project excellence.

Awards
The IPMA Awards support professional project management in recognising high performance and also identifies projects as examples of excellent project management. IPMA recognises and acknowledges excellent projects, people and teams by providing recognition that proves their success. Applicants, finalists and winners will be elegible for: international highest honors and worldwide recognition, systematic feedback about their strengths and potential improvements in their project management, good opportunities to make multi-dimensional and world wide advertising for their marketing activity, opportunities to celebrate their achievements and success within their organisations, with their teams and alongside their customers and stakeholders.

Project Excellence Awards
High performance in projects and excellent project management has become imperative in the curricula of today’s business leaders and engineers. In the move to raise the professional project management skills, in 2002 IPMA launched the IPMA Project Excellence Model and introduced the IPMA International Project Excellence Award. The aim of the IPMA International Project Excellence Award is to increase the recognition of projects from different countries, different industries and different organisations and to motivate project teams to develop and improve project management.

Achievement Award
Since 2013 the International Project Management Association’s (IPMA) Achievement Awards, through its local Member Associations, have provided opportunities for industry recognition, at both the project and individual level, and for project teams and project managers to celebrate their career achievements. The Awards offer organisations the opportunity to review their project achievements as part of preparing the written submissions and to have their performance compared to similar projects and peers, and garner positive publicity for well-managed, innovative projects.

Humanitarian Aid Projects The Internationally Funded Humanitarian Aid Award is made to an overseas project (or programme) where completion or a large milestone has been reached. The Award recognizes a project managed or supported by a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that has brought a major benefit to a community.

Community Project
Community, cultural or volunteer-based projects as well as projects that are conducted by or underpin/promote the education, development, preservation and well being of indigenous, disadvantaged, or disabled people or which are undertaken in not-for-profit organisations.

PM of the Year
Any programme/project director, project manager or project team member who normally resides in an IPMA Member Association country is eligible to enter, or be entered in, the awards. A winning individual will be one who demonstrates, through narratives and documentary evidence, excellence and/or innovation in project management over a cumulative period of not less than two years.

Young Project Manager of a Year
The IPMA Young Project Manager Award is awarded annually to recognize and motivate young professional project managers around the world. It recognizes rising talent in the project and program management industries by honoring young project managers for their accomplishments early in their careers. Research Awards IPMA recognises excellence in project management research by young researchers (under 35 years of age), established researchers, and teams. The goal of IPMA Research Awards is to promote excellence within the research community. Researchers may come from academia, other research institutions or industry. Researchers may come from disciplines other than project management but must contribute to the development of project, programme management, project-oriented companies or any element named in the IPMA ICB. There are two types of Research Awards: IPMA Young Researcher Award and Research Achievement Award.