The IPMA Competence Baseline (ICB) is the competence standard for project management and is not restricted to any sector or branch. It was issued by the International Project Management Association (IPMA) as the common framework document all IPMA Member Associations and Certification Bodies conform to, to ensure consistent and harmonized standards for certification are applied. As such, the majority of its content focuses on the description of the project management competence elements.

Owner of the copyright:International Project Management Association (IPMA): www.ipma.ch

Distribution: How widely is the instrument used? A large number of national and international organizations have adopted the IPMA certification to be the backbone of their project management competence development.

Origin/history:IPMA started with the IPMA Competence Baseline Version 2.0. This was the first official version published in February 1999, with a small modification made in April 2001. The core team responsible for Version 3 which was accepted by the members in March, 2006.

When:First version February 1999, latest version March 2006.

Participants in the committee:Version 3: Gilles Caupin, Hans Knoepfel, Gerrit Koch, Klaus Pannenbäcker, Francisco Perez-Polo, Chris Seabury

Certification bodies?The ICB is the basis for certification by the certification bodies of about forty national Member Associations, who use these competence elements in assessing candidates.
The ICB, together with the IPMA Certification Regulations and Guidelines (ICRG), documents the IPMA four-level certification. The certification system complies with the relevant ISO-standards 9001: 2000, ISO 10006 and ISO/IEC 17024: 2003.

Number of certified organizations: 50,000 certificates issued

More information: see the chapter ICB - IPMA Competence Baseline, by Gerrit Koch, in the itSMF endorsed publication 'Frameworks for IT Management'