Strategic Plan.
PCI’s priorities for building a credible profession and certification body.
Overview
PCI’s strategic plan sets out how the institute intends to build — establishing the standard and credential, growing the body of knowledge, developing governance toward recognition, and building community, all while being honest about its status.
At a glance
Strategic priorities
- Establish the PCL-AI standard and assessment
- Develop the body of knowledge, including AI
- Mature governance toward accreditation readiness
- Build membership, chapters and community
Measured by integrity
This develops as the institute matures, and PCI makes no claims beyond what is true today.
The plan, in five moves
PCI is being built deliberately, in the open. The plan is straightforward: define the discipline, certify it well, support the people who practise it, and earn recognition rather than assert it.
Define the standard
Set a clear, AI-aware standard for the controls discipline.
Certify professionals
Assess and certify competence through the PCI certifications.
Build the body of knowledge
Develop the shared reference base the profession can rely on.
Grow the community
Establish chapters and membership across regions.
Pursue accreditation
Work toward formal accreditation against ISO/IEC 17024 principles, rather than claiming it.
Common questions
Is PCI accredited?
PCI is building toward formal accreditation rather than claiming it. The credential and its processes are designed around the ISO/IEC 17024 personnel-certification principles, which sets the international standard for impartial, competence-based certification bodies. We state our status plainly and do not imply recognition we do not yet hold — that honesty is part of how a credible certification body earns trust.
What comes first?
The standard, the credential and the governance behind them.
How is progress reported?
Transparently, including through annual reporting.
Why this matters
For a certification body, integrity is not a value statement — it is the product. PCI's standing rests on clear governance, impartial process, separation of training from assessment, and plain honesty about its status. A professional or employer should be able to trust the credential precisely because the institution behind it is run this way.
PCI is building in the open, designed around the ISO/IEC 17024 personnel-certification principles and candid about what is in place today versus what is still being established. It does not claim accreditation it does not yet hold, or recognition it has not earned. That restraint is deliberate — and it is how a new institution becomes a credible one.
- Substance over marketing
- Fair, transparent process
- Honesty about our status
- Responsible, governed use of AI
What done looks like
A plan without a definition of done is a mood. For each priority, these are the qualitative milestones — deliberately without dates PCI cannot stand behind.
Standard
The Body of Knowledge validated through job-task analysis and practitioner review, and issued as v1.0.
Credential
A founding cohort assessed under the full policy framework, with a pass mark fixed by formal standard-setting.
Governance
Committees seated with independent majorities; the credential registry live; public verification working.
Community
Active chapters and member services that are genuinely used — measured by participation, not sign-ups.
Recognition
An accreditation application submitted on merit, when the evidence supports it — earned, not asserted.
How the plan stays honest
Two rules keep a founding-stage plan from becoming marketing. First, sequencing over speed: governance and validation come before growth, because a credential scaled before it is defensible is a liability to everyone who holds it. Second, no unbacked dates: the sequence is firm, the calendar is not, and if a phase slips, PCI will say the phase slipped rather than quietly redrawing the plan. Progress is reported in the open — through annual reporting and the status pages — so the plan can be checked against reality by anyone, at any time.
Where you can shape it
The plan assumes participation; several of its milestones cannot be reached without practitioners:
- Comment on the draft Body of Knowledge while it is in consultation — the highest-leverage input available right now;
- Express interest in examiner, subject-matter-expert or committee roles via the leadership page;
- Help establish a chapter in your region;
- As an employer or university, bring workforce evidence into the job-task analysis that validates the standard.