PMBOK | Software Development Today

08/10/200928/12/2014 on agile, PMBOK, project, project management, projectmanagement

PMI vs Agile, the debate continues

Prompted by a comment by Murray on my first blog in this debate I wanted to expand some of the ideas that have not yet been explored. Here are the key excerpts from Murray’s comment: PMBOK V4 is compatible with and supportive of Agile processes. Here are some relevant quotes from CHAPTER 2 − PROJECT …

18/08/200928/12/2014 on agile, paradigm shift, people, PMBOK, pmi, project management

The challenge to the Agile community: can’t we do better than PMBOK?

Another Knowledge Area in the PMBOK is Human Resource Management. The very name of the knowledge area already gives away the values behind it. It should not say “resource management”, it should say People Management! The old-skool project management is very much based on the values of Scientific Management and Hierarchical organizations that have permeated …

17/08/200928/12/2014 on agile, PMBOK, pmi, principles, process, project management

“Déjà vu” all over again, or why PMI/PMBOK are dangerous for the agile movement

There are significantly different sets of beliefs between what I call Old-Skool project management (embodied by PMBOK) and what is emerging as Agile project management for Software Development. Old-skool project management is based on values and scientific breakthroughs that are over 100 years old. Scientific management (Frederick Taylor, circa 1911) Cost based management (optimizing costs …

14/08/200928/12/2014 on change, change management, kanban, PMBOK, process, scrum

On how PMBOK Change management creates variability and reduces predicatbility

In the last post I tried to point out how the analytical approach of any standard (and specifically PMBOK’s) will create problems for those actually having to implement those standards.Change management in PMBOK is a particularly large problem in this respect. Scope Control (PMBOK’s process for change management in scope) comes at 19 different activities. …

13/08/200928/12/2014 on agile, change, change management, PMBOK, project management

Why PMBOK fails to embrace change

Yesterday we talked about the Project Management Plan process and how it is not adjusted to many software organizations. Today we will talk about the Project Scope Management knowledge area in the PMBOK. PMBOK defines that within this Knowledge Area there are five processes[1] Scope Planning: plan on how the scope will be defined [plus …

12/08/200928/12/2014 on agile, organizations, PMBOK, pmi, project management, project planning

PMI and the meta-planning process, or why software development planning is different

In the previous post I said I’d talk about Project Integration Management. Of that knowledge area from the PMBOK, I’ll focus on one specific Project Management Process within the Project Integration Management (this is how PMBOK calls the different components for each Knowledge Area).The process I’ll focus on is “Develop Project Management Plan”. There’s an …