In addition to the international organization ISPI sponsors local chapters in major cities through the United States and Canada and has affiliates in Europe, Africa, and Asia as well as members in South America and Australia.
The association's members work in various types of organizations, including business, industry, government, military, education (K-12 and post-secondary), non-profit and as independent consultants.
Following tenets of evidence-based practice, HPT also initiates and implements interventions effectively to achieve meaningful and sustained change in outcomes throughout their life cycle.
In 2002 ISPI convened a group of workplace managers, business consultants, and academics met to define what skills and abilities a performance technology practitioner needed.
This demonstration enables employers and clients to determine the qualifications and applied skills of a performance improvement professional with a standardized measurement.
Since the certification is performance-based, not education-based, individuals who demonstrate proficiency in ten Standards of Performance Technology and commit to the ISPI Code of Ethics can be certified regardless of their educational background.
[citation needed] The roots of ISPI began on January 29, 1962, at the Randolph Air Force Base Officers' Club in San Antonio, Texas, during a dinner meeting held to organize the Programmed Learning Society.
[11] With members living and working in more than 30 countries, it was felt that ISPI more accurately reflected the breadth and geographic diversity of the membership and acknowledged the wide variety of interventions that comprise human performance technology.
The three-day Institute was designed disseminate the integration of HPT models, concepts, and research findings through the analysis of real cases for the first time.
PIQ is a peer-reviewed journal created to stimulate professional discussion in the field and to advance the discipline of HPT through publishing scholarly works.