PMI is revising The Standard for Portfolio Management. The draft of the fifth edition is in the ANSI public review stage right now, and the comment window closes on 7 September 2026. You do not need a paid PMI membership to take part, and you do not need to be a portfolio manager. This is what the process is, what you can and cannot see, and how to file a comment before the window shuts.
The dates, from PMI’s own page
PMI runs its public reviews on a separate site, publiccomment.pmi.org. As of 4 September 2026 it lists exactly one open document: The Standard for Portfolio Management – Fifth Edition ANSI BSR-8 Comment Period, with the line “ANSI BSR Comment period 24 July to 7 September 2026.”
Two further conditions are stated on the same page, word for word:
- “All Users are required to log in with a FREE PMI log in to view and comment on any document.” The page adds, in capitals: “Paid Memberships are NOT required.”
- “[T]his and all communications surrounding development, revision and approval processes may become part of the public record.” Your comment is not anonymous feedback into a box. Write it as something you are content to have attributed to you.
What is actually being revised
The edition in force today is The Standard for Portfolio Management – Fourth Edition, which is the version PMI still lists on its standards overview. A fifth edition in ANSI review means the fourth is being superseded, not amended.
Here is the honest limitation of this article: the draft itself sits behind the login. Calling the document URL without an account returns “Access denied. Please login or register first.” We have therefore not read the fifth-edition draft and make no claim about what changed in it, how long it is, or when it will be published. Anyone telling you today what the fifth edition contains either has an account and read it, or is guessing. If you want to know, the login is free and the door is open for three more days.
For the underlying vocabulary, PMK has the fourth-edition-era terms: portfolio management and portfolio. If PMI’s revision changes those definitions, we will update the pages against the published standard, not against the draft.
What “ANSI BSR-8” means, in plain terms
The phrase in the title is not PMI jargon. It comes from the American National Standards Institute, and it is worth understanding because it tells you how much weight your comment carries.
PMI is an ANSI-accredited standards developer. To get a document approved as an American National Standard, a developer has to run a due-process procedure, and public review is a mandatory step in it. BSR-8 is the form a developer files with ANSI’s Board of Standards Review to open that review; the announcement then appears in ANSI’s Standards Action under “Call for Comments”. PMI’s own procedural rules are public in its Policy for the Development and Coordination of American National Standards.
The practical consequence: a comment filed in this window is a procedural act, not a suggestion box entry. ANSI’s own description of the step carries a detail worth knowing – “Any subsequent substantive changes to an original draft announced for comment will require additional public review through Standards Action.” A comment that lands can therefore reopen the document rather than merely be noted. That is a materially different thing from posting an opinion in a forum, and it is the reason the window is worth using.
How to comment before 7 September
- Create a free PMI account, or sign in to the one you have. No membership fee, no certification required.
- Go to publiccomment.pmi.org and open the Portfolio Management fifth-edition document.
- Read the section you actually have standing on. A comment that says “chapter 3 is too abstract” is weak. A comment that says “the definition in 3.2 conflicts with how our organisation is audited, here is the case” is not.
- Submit before 7 September 2026. Do not aim for the last day: the window has a stated end date and PMI is under no obligation to extend it.
Why this is on a glossary site
Because standards revisions are where the definitions come from. Every term on this site traces back to a document that went through a process like this one, and most practitioners only meet the result years later, in an exam or an audit. The comment stage is the only point at which the wording is still movable. It is also the least advertised: PMI publishes it on a site most members never visit, and the general certification press does not cover it.
The same logic applies to the flagship document. If you want to see how far PMI’s core standard has moved across recent revisions, we track it in PMBOK Guide editions compared.
Sources
- PMI Public Comment – comment period dates, free-login requirement, public-record notice. Read 1 and 4 September 2026.
- PMI Global Standards – current edition listed as The Standard for Portfolio Management – Fourth Edition. Read 1 September 2026.
- ANSI, BSR-8/108 Form: Standards Action Public Review Request – what the BSR-8 filing is.
- ANSI, Step 3 of ANS approval: public comment – public review as a due-process step.
- PMI, Policy for the Development and Coordination of American National Standards (PDF).
By Tom, PMP-certified since 2004. Last updated: September 2026