A homegrown PM vs. the PMPs!

I was a homegrown project manager who managed projects successfully using strong communication skills, a killer work habit, a lot of common sense, and respect for my team’s ability.  I bristled at those “real PMs” with their PMP or other credentials.  After all, wasn’t real life experience more valuable than book smarts and processes inflicted, yes I mean inflicted, on others?

I resisted, I fought. I believed that PMBOK and any formal project management methodology would hold me back.  Specifically I thought:

• Customer satisfaction would suffer if I could not react to changing needs in a timely, cost effective manner.
• My creativity would be blocked – the processes that I had seen used were too rigid and real projects need flexibility.  No project ever goes as planned and you need to be creative in meeting customer needs.
• It was idealistic – every project and client is different and one methodology will not work for all of them.
• It added overhead and was time consuming – a customer wants results not “a plan”.  They do not want to hear about what will be done – they want to see things being done. 
• People do not want to be managed by a PMP – who wants to be part of team where individual skill is not recognized, valued, and called upon.
• My customers were very happy – I was doing something right so why rock the boat!

So what happened to me?  You will need to check back to find out.