Improving the world with software
Better software. Better questions.
Essays on software development, teams and the craft of building things that last.
Essays, page 13
314 essays in the archive
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“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 …
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Response to Lynda Bourne on Agile and the Business message
The following is a comment to Lynda that I was not able to submit to her blog. You can find Lynda’s original post here. @Lynda Nice post. I’m glad that the conversation is continuing. Both PMI and Agile people need this dialogue. A couple of comments on your post. 1. I agree that Agile Advocates …
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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. …
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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 …
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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 …
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A message to PMI: let’s start a much needed dialogue. First post
Why PMI style project management is different and why should we care? Continues… Given the brouha about my last post, I thought I’d give my self some posts to clarify where I think the big differences are between Agile project management and the PMI-style project management (this last one I will affectionately call old-skool, because …
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PMI vs. Agile, what is different, and why should we care
The PMI people don’t seem to stop trying to “guess” what Agile is. Guessing is the right term, because anyone with more than a few hours experience in Agile software development can see their cluelessness from afar! Take this article by Lynda Bourne DMP, PMP (no, I’m not making those TLA’s up, she uses them). …
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To all PMBOK, PMP and PMI people: you are missing 1 million points! Stop trying to explain something you don’t understand!
The traditionalists are starting to be quite dangerous in the hostile “take over” of Agile and Scrum (Kanban can’t be far behind). In this post Glen tries to tell us that it is ok to call “project management” what we do in a Scrum (f. ex.) development effort. Now, that would not be so serious …
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The CMMI folks are out to get you! Seriously, they are starting with Scrum, what’s next?
The folks talking about CMMI and Scrum are dangerous! Not the least of which because they miss some of the most basic points about software development! You would think they would know about software, but you would be wrong! Check this out: In an article about CMMI and Scrum the site ExecutiveBrief (go there at …
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Agile scales, Waterfall doesn’t! The myth is busted!
I have, for many years, been working in software development and for about 6 years with Agile Software Development adoption. First as a project manager and later driving the adoption of Agile in the organizations where I’ve worked. One clear characteristic has become clear to me over time. You may not hear about it much …
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Stop committing to iteration scope!
This may seem like heresy in the world of “Scrum requires commitments from the team”, but think about it. If your iteration is about two weeks (give or take) and your team is pretty much fixed for that period of time (you can’t really “change” a team that fast), then what else is left? Yes, …
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Can Scrum and Kanban be used for non-software development work?
Can Scrum or Kanban be used to manage any other work than software development? Do the same concepts apply? The past week-end there’s been some chatter on twitter about using Kanban or Scrum for managing work outside the software development realm. People seem (pleasently) surprised that it can be done. But can it really? The …
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