PMI and Scrum

November 16, 2011

Though traditional project management and Scrum have long been viewed as antithetical ways of working, that’s not quite right. It would be more accurate to say that Scrum simply responds to and refines the shortcomings of traditional management practices. Still, as Scrum and other agile methods have continued to grow in the past few years, many PMPs have begun reassessing Scrum and agile to see what aspects of those methods it can utilize. On the PMI website, they’ve just run a short interview with an individual who straddles both worlds: Jimi Fosdick, who is both a PMP and a CST (certified Scrum trainer). According to him, it’s still possible for traditional project management and Scrum and agile to coexist. Still, he’s quick to point out that there are major challenges. Of those, he cites the following as the most irksome:

“Organizational Structure: Companies aren’t usually set up to handle the way the work is done in scrum and agile–and that’s a very difficult thing to change.

“Corporate Culture: Scrum is built on the principles of self-organization and self-management. So the development team doesn’t really have a boss or a manager telling them what to do. And that’s very scary for a lot of organizations. There’s a prevailing belief–left over from the scientific management of the 1950s and 1960s–that unless you’re watching what your people are doing, they won’t complete the task at hand.

“False Assumptions: Many of the policies and progress metrics in place in organizations and the artifacts and reporting required, are often counterproductive and run contrary to scrum. Some tasks–like needing sign-off on a full requirements document before development can start–interferes with the ability to do something in an agile way.”

You can read more here: http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2009/12/agile-apprehensions.html

Written by admin · Filed Under Agile Methodology, Agile Project Management, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Strategic Vision & Agile

November 9, 2011

Many organizations that adopt Scrum focus so much on the iterative nature of agile development that long range vision and strategic product design can get lost. Jimi Fosdick will hold a webinar on November 28 2011 to discuss the need to include long term product vision, coherent user experience and User Centered design and architecture along with specific best practices for achieving a coherent product that delights users.

Topics will include:
• Discussion of Product Vision and approaches to crafting a compelling overall vision for products
• Discussion of User-Centered/Value-Driven design and approaches to incorporating user experience (UX) and software architecture early in the development process
• Explanation of the pitfalls of a lack of vision and so-called “hybrid” models for incorporating UX and architecture into Scrum Projects

Register for the session here:

Written by admin · Filed Under Agile Methodology, Agile Project Management, Scrum, Scrum and HR | Leave a Comment 

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