Promoting sustainability considerations in Project Management
The PM² Alliance supports research and publications in the PM² and in the broader area of project management.
In this context, PM² Alliance supported the research and is promoting the results of this MSc Thesis done by Patricia Marques, Master in Engineering Management, University of Minho, Portugal.
The study was performed by Patricia Marques, MSc in Industrial Engineering, and supervised by Anabela Pereira Tereso, PhD and Coordinator of Portuguese Project Management Observatory, and Paulo Sousa, MSc In Project Management and President of APOGEP.
The study aimed to compare two relatively recent project management methodologies, PM² and PRiSM, comparing their advantages and disadvantages found in the literature.
The PRiSM methodology seeks to make the project management process more sustainable and is based on the P5 standard, a standard that intends to align portfolios, programs and projects with the organization’s strategy for sustainability.
The PM² methodology aims to answer the needs of the European Union institutions and of the organisations that use it. However, the presence of sustainability specific guidelines is absent, because of its character as a generic methodology.
Nicos Kourounakis
PM² Alliance President
See also the new publication
"PM² Sustainability Addendum" - PM² with Sustainability Considerations - (2024)
The major difference between the two methodologies is related to the main objectives presented by each one. In the PRiSM methodology, the P5 Impact Analysis and the Sustainability Management Plan are the main deliverables that are different compared to other approaches, including PM².
The feature most mentioned by the authors about PM² was to include best practices from other bodies of knowledge, and in PRiSM and P5 standard, it was to be an extension of the Triple Bottom Line, because it also includes the product and the process.
According to the interviewee, PM² aims to be a generic methodology that can be used in any project, so a focus on sustainability would remove the methodology “elasticity”. However, users who want to apply the PM² methodology and consider sustainability can include it in the additional objectives, and use, as we propose, the P5 Impact Analysis and the Sustainability Management Plan.
Paulo Sousa, MSc In Project Management and President of APOGEP
