PMBOK moved to an eighth edition in November 2025, and the twelve principles and eight performance domains are gone. Six principles and seven performance domains now, with the process groups back as focus areas. Which is one reason this assessment is anchored on ISO 21502 instead: it is vendor-neutral and it did not change shape last year.
This is a maturity assessment across 56 questions, structured on the practices in ISO 21502:2020 and deliberately agnostic about delivery approach, so predictive, agile and hybrid teams are scored on the same basis. It is free, it saves as you go, and you can stop and come back to it.
What this is
ISO 21502:2020 is guidance, not requirements, and no accredited organisational certification against it exists. That matters commercially, because certificates against it are sold. The organisational ratings that do exist are P3M3 from PeopleCert and CMMI V3.0 Benchmark Appraisals from ISACA. PMI, PeopleCert and IPMA all certify individuals, not organisations.
Worth knowing about the wider family: ISO 21500:2021 covers context and concepts, ISO 21505:2017 covers governance, ISO 21508:2026 and ISO 21513:2026 are new this year, and ISO/WD 21514 is at working draft — the first requirements-type standard in the series, and the one that could eventually support certification. It is years away.
There is more in our guide to structured project management and on writing a PMO charter. Come here when you want a score.
What it covers
56 questions, about 40 minutes.
| Section | Questions |
|---|---|
| Context, policy and roles | 5 |
| Governance and oversight | 5 |
| Institutionalisation and improvement | 4 |
| Life cycle, delivery and closure | 9 |
| Planning, schedule and cost | 7 |
| Scope, change and benefits | 7 |
| Risk, issues and quality | 7 |
| Resources, stakeholders, reporting and procurement | 12 |
How the scoring works
| Status | Weight | Means |
|---|---|---|
| Not started | 0% | No policy, process or activity exists |
| Planned | 25% | Agreed and scheduled, nothing in place yet |
| Partially implemented | 50% | In place for part of the scope, or applied inconsistently |
| Implemented, not evidenced | 75% | Operating as intended, but you could not prove it today |
| Implemented and evidenced | 100% | Operating as intended, with records someone could sample |
| Not applicable | — | A justified exclusion, removed from the score |
The wording avoids comply, conform and nonconformity throughout, and avoids vendor vocabulary in either direction — no stage boundaries, no performance domains, no competence elements. What is being measured is how consistently projects are actually run.
Free score, or the full report
The assessment and your overall score are free. The full report is a one-off $39 and gives you every question with your status and notes, the score broken down by section, a prioritised gap list, and the documents from the Project Management Toolkit that close each gap — as a PDF and a working Excel file.
How long does it take?
About 40 minutes. The resources, stakeholders, reporting and procurement section is the longest, and benefits management is usually the fastest to answer because the honest answer is usually no.
What to do with your score
Below 40% — start with governance and sponsorship. A sponsor who cannot make a funding decision, and an oversight body that has never stopped a project, are what make everything downstream optional.
40–70% — the usual shape. Planning, schedule and risk are in place; benefits realisation, post-project review and organisational change adoption are not. Those three are where the value of a project is actually decided.
Above 70% — compare reported status against outcome on a project that has closed. Green reporting on a project that landed late is the specific failure to look for, and it is invisible from inside the reporting.
Frequently asked questions
Is this assessment really free?
Yes. All 56 questions, the breakdown by section and your overall score cost nothing. The $39 report is optional.
Can my organisation be certified to ISO 21502?
No. It is guidance and there is no accredited certification scheme for it. If you have been offered organisational ISO 21502 certification, it is an unaccredited private certificate.
Does this work for agile teams?
Yes. ISO 21502 is explicitly agnostic about delivery approach, and the questions are written about outcomes — is scope decomposed, is change controlled, are benefits owned — rather than about artefacts specific to one method.
Should I use PMBOK or PRINCE2 instead?
Either is a fine method. Neither is a neutral yardstick for an organisational assessment, because both belong to a single body with its own certification business. That is why the structure here is ISO.
Can I use this for a client?
Yes. Run one assessment per client organisation.
What happens to my answers?
They are stored against your account so you can come back to them, and they are never shared. You can delete them at any time.