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PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct - The best guardrails for successful project delivery

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Stelian ROMAN Project Manager| MicroSafety Carlingford, New South Wales, Australia

Central to PMI’s mission is upholding the highest standards of ethical conduct and professionalism. To this end, PMI has established two critical bodies: the Ethics Review Committee (ERC) and the Ethics Advisory Team (EAT). Each team plays a vital role in sustaining PMI’s ethical framework, mandates, and responsibilities. This blog provides clarity on the structure, function, and distinctions between these two teams, aiming to provide project management professionals with a clear understanding of their importance in the PMI ecosystem.

As PMI members and volunteers, we sign this Code very often: for example, when we apply for a certification or for a volunteering opportunity.

Far from a checkbox, the Code is one of the most useful documents for a project lead, project team member and any project stakeholder. It provides guidance on how we, as professionals. should avoid conflict, create a collaboration culture and improve the likelihood of success.

ProjectManagement.com - PMI’s Ethical Framework
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Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Thank you, Stelian, for highlighting the importance of PMI's Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct as a guide for project professionals.

I agree that the Code can help foster collaboration, prevent unnecessary conflicts and create conditions that support successful project delivery. However, I would distinguish between avoiding conflict and acting ethically when conflict cannot, or should not, be avoided.

Ethical conduct does not always produce agreement or preserve harmony. Responsibility, respect, fairness and honesty may require us to challenge decisions, raise uncomfortable concerns, question established practices or refuse actions that conflict with our professional obligations.

In such circumstances, conflict may arise precisely because ethical principles are being upheld, not because they have been neglected.

There is also an important distinction between achieving project objectives and acting ethically. A project may achieve its intended objectives despite questionable practices, while an ethically justified decision may increase costs, delay delivery or even lead to a project's cancellation.

This does not diminish the contribution of ethics to project success. It means that ethical principles cannot be evaluated solely by their contribution to operational outcomes.

The Code provides essential guidance, but applying it requires professional judgement, particularly when legitimate interests, responsibilities and consequences come into tension.

Perhaps the more fundamental question is not simply how ethical principles contribute to project success, but how we sustain our commitment to those principles when pursuing project objectives, especially when doing so carries a cost.

Ethics should help us pursue success responsibly, but its value must not depend on whether success is achieved.
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Lissette Indhira Pimentel Sosa
Community Champion
Program Manager| HARPER SRL Santo Domingo / Distrito Nacional, Dominican Republic

Thanks for sharing, Stelian. I agree that PMI's Code of Ethics should be more than something we acknowledge during certification or volunteering. It would be interesting to explore how we apply these principles when project pressures create difficult decisions.

Is there a particular ethical dilemma or situation you've encountered that you'd like the community to discuss?

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