IPMA ICB 4.0 — A global standard for project, programme and portfolio management competences

Abstract This paper reports on a four year development project of making the IPMA Individual Competence Baseline (ICB) version 4 — the first global standard for individual project, programme and portfolio management (3PM) competences. The paper further shows: the project phases, steps undertaken and the challenges throughout the development process. The main novelty of the new ICB4 can be found in the set of 29 general competencies which can be applied to project, programme and portfolio environments. The 29 competences are further broken down into Key Competence Indicators to fit each of the project, programme and portfolio environments.