I have already shared that I was PMP adverse. Nevertheless, I wanted to develop my skills further so I began watching the good PMs work their magic; some had credentials, others did not. What I saw was that they had a “formula” of success. I read books, websites, blogs, etc. And again, I saw a “formula”. I looked at my past successful projects and found I had used a “formula”. Note the use of the word formula - process is a bad word to me! When I joined Mariner as a Managing Consultant, I had the opportunity to become a Scrum Master and felt that I had finally found a process that made sense. It had a formula for success, but it was based on flexibility and iterative work. It fit my natural style very well and one by one, the project management myths I had believed were beginning to shatter. I was still a PMP holdout though. I viewed that accreditation as a negative stigma based on my experiences.
One day while reviewing applications for a potential hire I mentioned my thoughts on PMPs to my boss. I told him that in my experience working with PMPs, I found them to be rigid and lacking in creativity. After a pause he said, “I am a PMP.” I was truly shocked silent! My boss did not fit my stereotype of a PMP at all. He is highly creative, flexible in problem solving, and builds strong teams. So, after pulling my foot out of my mouth, I decided to be more open minded. I took the plunge and got my PMP.
Let me publicly admit that I was wrong! The PMBOK provides a framework that you fill according to the needs of your customer. I am still able to be creative in how I approach a customer’s project. The steps are realistic and actually help avoid project pitfalls by providing the framework, not the answers.
Now I am focusing on being an Agile PMP. Using the framework from Scrum and the PMBOK, I plan to merge the two and more effectively manage projects. Even though I am using a “formal methodology”, I do not feel rigid or uncreative and my original “homegrown” skills fit right into the process. My goal is to use these skills in such a way that others see the power of them, and not the limitations of me! Check back as I share how I make Scrum and PMBOK live in Harmony.
Scrum is simple. Break down the work into small tasks, figure out how much work is involved, and then commit to completing it during the next Sprint. That's it in a nutshell to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm a ScrumMaster, but we don't stick to it verbatim here. We use ScrumButt, or KanBan. We basically each have buckets and those buckets are full of prioritized tasks. We tackle the tasks as time permits. Our work load is very customer driven, so interrupts are extremely common!
I agree Brad. The thing I find extremely helpful though is getting the commitment for the sprint so that the team really can focus on the committed tasks. I think that gives customers time to really think about what they are asking for and I have seen it eliminate some items that were a must have one day and suddenly not a real need during the next sprint planning session.
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