http://www.linkedin.com/news?home=&gid=52030&trk=anet_ug_news

I feel your pain

I’d recommend you purchase the PMBoK v.4 and post a few chapters up on the walls, with special emphasis on The Rolling Wave concept and Progressive Elaboration.

Cheers!

My experience with certified PMP PMs is only that of the “evil” kind: Gantt charts, resource matricies, contract gates, estimates that must be 90% accurate, assign detailed tasks for 4+ months out, etc. seem to be held as the only way a project can succeed. The plan is the most important thing to the ones I know, not the work, customer or people.

And your PMP trainer said not to plan too far ahead. Amazing. How do PMP certified PMs get so far afield?

I anxiously await further reports from “PMI Country!”

To answer your question, by “With such messages received” I was referring to the positive messages you’re referring to. Those that are surprinsing you. If they listen to Agile coaches continuously refering to PMI as “absolute control”, “planning all the project in advance and not changing a bit of it”, we lose credibility and have a good chance to meet resistance. I’m not sure it is more clear that way….

http://www.infoq.com/presentations/agile-pmp @ Time Index 1:01:08

“With such messages received in their class, no wonder why so much PM resist to change!”

What messages are you referring to?

What can be the role of a classic PM in regards to a Scrum Team? Good question.
I consider this individual in the same way I consider a developper, QA, business analyst, functional analyst, DBA, etc. That is, are they part of the Scrum Team or are they part of the supporting cast – Individuals that help (or impede) the Scrum team.

On one project, the PM became the ScrumMaster because we felt that she had the required skills and attitude to do the job. On a more recent project, the PM was part of the supporting cast, thus not in the Scrum team. In both cases, these individuals had a good communication channel with upper management (which helps a lot!) and skill sets that would the help the team deliver a quality product.

Both PMs in these large organizations were needed for procurement management and assisted and coached the Product Owner and/or ScrumMaster with scope management, communication plans, financial analysis, and more. We, of course, assisted the PMs in transitioning from the WBS to a Product Backlog and helping them let go to his or her traditional responsibilities.

In the end, there is no PM in Scrum. There are only ScrumMasters or Product Owners with an extra and very useful PM toolbox. Just like sometimes we work with ScrumMasters or Product Owners with technical, marketing or functional skill sets.

So I guess my final answer is : It depends.

Now can you explain to me if there is a place for an “Agile Project Manager” in a Scrum project? It’s my belief that PMPs have to become Product Owner, ScrumMaster or Team member. But I hear a lot about these “Agile Project Manager”, the “servant leaders”, that are not really defined anywhere _in the context_ of the 3 official roles in a Scrum project. What do you think about it?

Hi Derek,

Thanks for the response!

The “I’m very disappointed!” was actually a running gag between my colleague (who is also an Agile Coach) and I. Every time a trainer would say something that connected directly with our own core values, we’d turn to each other and express our disappointment – As a joke of course.

The whole mindset was a shock to us because where expecting the preaching of an inapplicable and disconnected gospel, at least from an I.T. point of view. It becomes difficult to pick a fight with a PMP trainer who says “CPIs, WBS’ and Financial analysis mean nothing if the project is not supported by motivated and competent individuals”. Amen!

Now if we can only figure out how to abstract the WBS process…

Cheers!
Eric

Best Regards,
Derek Huether, PMP, CSM
http://twitter.com/derekhuether