With funding from the American Board of Family Medicine, the Review Committee for Family Medicine of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has undertaken a project to examine the length of training for family medicine residents. This project comes at a time when concerns are being raised regarding how well family medicine residents are being prepared for independent practice, especially in view of the changing health care environment. The declining performance of recent graduates on the American Board of Family Medicine certification examination and reports of narrowing of the scope of practice of family physicians have only heightened these concerns. This special article is meant to provide a historical review of the issue as well as an overview of the project.