The Hard-Nosed Project Manager

The PMP designation and PM competency

I never believed that holding a PMP designation was proof of a project manager’s competency but I must say I am growing disenchanted with what I see these days on various PM related web sites, LinkedIn groups, and in my professional life.  A few examples:

• PM sticks tasks into his schedules based on duration only.  No attempt at setting the level of effort of individual resources for those tasks.  Wonders why he can’t level his schedule.
• PM does not know what WBS means.
• PM can’t read a schedule.  What is a predecessor or successor, what is started, etc.

We are not talking here of a lack of familiarity with specific tools but rather with basic project management concepts.  These shortcomings could be excused and even understood in the case of an accidental PM but not in the case of someone who, prior to getting tested for the PMP, had to document “Minimum three years/36 months unique non-overlapping professional project management experience during which at least 4,500 hours were spent leading and directing project tasks”.  Even worse; the examples listed above do not relate to a single individual.

Something is seriously wrong here…

What do you think?  As always questions and comments are welcome.

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Run, don’t walk (or crawl)!

Yeah, I know, it should be the other way around; but often it is not.  Why people or companies try to start any endeavour directly at the top instead of progressing from their current level evades me.  In project management you often see this with PMOs or Enterprise Project Management (EPM).

Enterprises get into a mad rush to create one or many PMOs when, up to that moment, they had never thought of actually managing projects or of having any type of processes however simple.  Suddenly an Encyclopaedia Britannica sized manual lands on your desk and every newly christened PM must abide by all of its teachings.  The reality is that typically these new processes are ill formed, ill fitting, and bypassed as much as possible.  Of course processes evolve on a weekly basis. 

The PMO craze has been going on for years now and in many organizations is in its Nth incarnation.  PMOs are not useless unless you design them to be that way.

EPM is the newer craze but in many regards follow the same path as PMOs.  I know of an organization where, up to very recently, no schedules where ever prepared yet they have gone whole hog on EPM.  You have to prepare a schedule, upload it, and maintain it.  Simple, no?  Maybe, maybe not:

• You are told not to put too many tasks in your schedule (nothing below deliverables).  When you contradict that edict with a whopping 700 tasks for a 6 month, 10 person project you find out why; the poor server can barely load, save, and publish something that size.  Forget resource levelling; my laptop is more powerful.
• In total contradiction with the prior directive, schedules are treated like a collection of post it notes.  Everything that comes to mind is now required to go into the schedule.
• In total contradiction with the prior directive everything that your sponsor does not want to explain must be taken out of the schedule even if doing so deletes predecessors or successors.  You can always add them later!
• You must stick to the original end date regardless of delays, scope changes, resource shortages, or whatever else happens.
• When you ask for the WBS field to be part of the enterprise template you are asked by the EPM administrator if you mean Work Breakdown Structure.  What else the freaking hell could I mean?  You are then told that you have to wait for a meeting of the steering committee to find out if adding your field will be allowed.  Something tells me that no one on that committee has ever run a project.
• You are told that you need to update a traffic light status based on earned value metrics but promptly find out that none of the EV related fields are visible.  I guess I’m supposed to go to that steering committee for that too.  By the way I found out that the traffic lights are not linked to EV anyway; they are set by hands and there are no guidelines for setting them.  All green anyone?

I guess that, if you insist on jumping off a plainly visible cliff, you may as well run and be out of your misery sooner instead of inching up to it.

What do you think?  As always comments are welcome.

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Abusing the PMP designation

Among other things, I “own” the CanadianPM group on LinkedIn.  Because of that I get requests to join from a number of people and I allow them to join based on a set of criteria.  This means that I do read everyone’s profile.

I have seen an emerging trend lately, which I consider an abuse of the PMP designation.  Some people are documenting their current or previous positions as “PMP at such and such”.  Actually, this happened again this morning.

 

For those who don’t know, the PMP is not a position, it is a designation linked to a certification.  The only reason I can see for using “PMP at such and such” in a LinkedIn profile or in a resume is to get ahead based on search criteria.  Doing this is lame.

 

The PMP should not be a ticket to employment as a project manager.  I know a hell of a lot of PMs that are not PMP and do good work, some are actually awesome.  I also know some PMP that are crap at project management and passed the exam purely because they have a good memory and know how to play the multiple question exam game.

My opinion is this; if the only way you can get a PM job is because you have PMP tagged after your name or because you put “PMP at such and such” in your LinkedIn profile or resume, you might question why you did that and who you want to impress.  Either of you may be jackasses…

 

What do you think?  As always comments are welcome.

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Agile? Me?

I try to continually improve myself.  I know, it’s hard to believe, but it is still possible for me to do so…

So, I’ve been thinking of expanding my project management skills some more but, what do I pick?  I already have the piece of paper that proves that I know something (the PMP) and I work in Manufacturing IT so I could go ITIL, I could go PRINCE2, I could go IPMA.  All of those are PMP look alike certifications with various strong points.  For a comparative review lookup this post from the How to Manage a Camel blog.

I also trained on RUP a few years ago so I could go Agile/Scrum or some other approach.  In my current work environment Agile methods are not really in fashion; my clients typically insist on gate reviews and a waterfall approach. 

That being said I can appreciate that understanding Agile could be useful to me it is like speaking more than one language or knowing more than one culture.  On that level, it appeals to me because, after all, you’d have to be an idiot (I was going to say [20100712 - PR - expletive deleted] but it is not polite to do so…) to think that there is only one good, fits everything approach/language/culture.

So assuming I decide to go Agile, can anyone out there engage in a conversation with me on benefits they have realized from going Agile?  I am not looking for dogma (e.g. waterfall is crap), for preaching on the Agile Manifesto (I hate motherhood statements), for how Agile is better that sliced bread/the 4-hole button/the wheel.  What I am looking for numbers on hard benefits (consistently cheaper, consistently shorter schedule, etc.) or soft benefits (easier to lead the current generation, higher customer satisfaction, etc).

Go ahead, convince me to go Agile.  I’m open-minded about it; I’m just looking for good arguments before I invest my time.  Thanks in advance to those who chime in.

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PMP or CSM?

Here you go; a little TLA (Three Letter Acronym) salad on this sunny Saturday morning.  This serving may me a little spicy for some…

I landed on this PMI Community - Post that compares Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Scrum Master (CSM) roles.  To me they aren’t the same and I agree with the writer of the article.  What she calls a CSM we call a technical lead.  And to us, the technical lead is as important as the project manager, the quality manager, or any other team member.  Different but equal.

What do you think?  As always questions and comments are welcome.

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