Steve Butler PMP lays out what Project Management means to him (and PM-Partners) in conjunction with the exciting Shim Marom-inspired #pmflashblog initiative. In short, Steve feels that project management requires a lot of planning, and some common sense, too.
Project management is all about change. Strip out all the latest fads, standards and gimmicks and at its heart all project management really boils down to is a risk mitigation exercise when you are trying to effect change – be it deliver a product or a service or an update. Keep that thought at the front of your mind when managing a project, and everything becomes common sense. You are changing something, and you want to get it right. So what do you need to consider? Well, you need to make sure “it” is the right thing…so some sort of requirements gathering exercise and scoping exercise is needed so you can hit the target. To do that you need to make sure you are talking to the right people to find out the right information, and to make sure you are keeping the right people up to speed with what you are doing – so some sort of communications management and stakeholder happiness plan needs to be in place. Obviously when you gather the requirements and define the scope, a budget and a timeline needs to be defined and managed, and how they progress needs to be communicated (hence having a communications plan). Within the timeline will be milestones and deliverables and some sort of mechanism for delivering them and reviewing the milestones. Part of making sure you hit the target is making sure the quality of what you are doing is acceptable, so some sort of plan to manage that is necessary. You can think about assembling the team, and keeping them happy and efficient. If you’re not sure exactly what you’re doing, maybe deliver in bits and make sure you are heading in the right direction by regularly reviewing with someone who knows what is required. Maybe regularly review with the team to make sure they are doing the right thing and have no blockers you don’t know about. We could call that basic concept, oh I don’t know, Agile? A concept that has been around for decades, but now has a name! Project Management – an exercise in common sense.
So why is there yet another “agile” course, and what is the point of it? Well, in just the 12 months from mid-2010, the number of PMI members using agile practices rose from 12% to a staggering 27% (according to a PMI survey of its membership). In response to this increase, PMI assembled a working group of industry thought leaders and authors (not just PMI folks) to study how and if PMI should respond.
During the first few meetings, only one of the group felt that the PMI should have a certification, and over the months it became clear that there wasn’t a common understanding across organisations of what agile means anyway. In some organisations, agile simply meant Scrum, in others it was XP, in others it was Scrum with a bit of XP or with kanban thrown in. It was clear that a certification was needed that clarified the core of what agile means and created a common language and understanding of principles across organisations. The PMI-ACP (Agile Certified Practitioner) was developed.
There are other agile certifications of course, such as DSDM, plus all of the specific certifications for agile developers, such as Certified Scrum Master etc. Where the PMI-ACP differs is that it demonstrates to colleagues, organisations or even potential employers an awareness of all aspects of agile – not just in, for example, Scrum. It is a globally recognised certification that demonstrates that practitioners are able to use agile techniques and most crucially apply them in the correct circumstances – at the time of writing it is also the fastest growing PMI certification out there.
The PM-Partners course is intended for teams and project managers at varying stages of agile adoption who need an immersion session in the how to manage an agile project. It explores a wide range of agile techniques while also preparing the participants to sit for the PMI-ACP exam. Certified practitioners will then be able to demonstrate to their organisations and colleagues when and how best to use agile techniques, and not just focus on Scrum in all circumstances.
