PMI and Agile – Oil and Water or Can They Co-exist?
PMBOK is a 400 page book describing 44 management processes within 12 knowledge areas published by PMI as the standard for Project Management. Scrum can be depicted on one page. The Agile Manifesto including principles is documented in less than 3 pages. Seems like oil and water – or is it? In this workshop we will explore the basic principles of PMI/PMBOK and de-mystify the burdensome hype. Through a brief tutorial and small team activities, we will determine if Agile/Scrum principles can be cleanly aligned to the basic principles of PMI/PMBOK. We will identify what works, what doesn’t and what should change. This session is appropriate for all audiences, regardless of PMI knowledge or experience. The results of this session will be docmented in the conference wiki and shared with PMI.
This is geared to a small working group…5-7 tables or teams. I will begin by assessing the audience to find out who has PM and Agile experience, who is PMP and who is CSM and those that don’t fit either category. We will quickly brainstorm what ideas come to mind with the words PMI and PMBOK and capture them on a board to be used later. I will then share myths of PMI/PMBOK through a fact or fiction exercise. The goal is to jump start the team on thinking about PMI/PMBOK in a different frame of mind (30 minutes)
We will then break up into the groups (by table). Each group will have one of they key knowledge areas (with requisite processes) labeled on a flipchart. They will work together to brainstorm what Agile processes/practices may or may not align with the knowledge area and processes. I will ask them to think about: What fits? What doesn’t work? Are there Agile practices that don’t map at all? What are your concerns? (30 minutes)
The final stage is report out and close. Each team will review the PMBOK knowledge area assigned and how they feel it may or may not map to Agile best practices. We will close with a review of the original ideas about PMI and PMBOK to see if they still apply. The results would be captured on the conference WIKI.