Month: November 2017

Agile Project Management, Events, Leadership, Travel

DIPMF Review

I have just returned from the Dubai International Project Management Forum (DIPMF). It was a very enjoyable and impressive conference, focussed on innovation in project management. Mark Langley, president and CEO of the PMI, gave a keynote presentation on the importance of innovation. Mark explained he visits Dubai 3 or 4 times a year since it is where many of the major construction projects are occurring along with innovations in project management. His presentation featured the 2017 PMI Thought Leadership Series publication “Achieving Greater Agility” and he highlighted the Agile Practice Guide that was released with the latest PMBOK® Guide. Visiting Dubai and seeing the scope and pace of construction development is impressive. I have written about my interest in […]

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Agile Project Management, Certification, Events, Leadership, Travel

Conference Updates

In the last couple of weeks, I have had the pleasure to attend and present at the PMI Global Conference in Chicago and the PMO Symposium in Houston. This week I am off to present at a PMI Chapter conference in Saskatchewan and then the Dubai International Project Management Forum (DIPMF) in Dubai. Once I return I will post some accounts and observations from these conferences. As agile approaches mature and spread beyond software the project management landscape continues to evolve. I always learn lots attending these events. Sometimes it is about perceptions and acceptance, sometimes new skills and techniques.  Please check www.LeadingAnswers.com for updates.

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Agile Project Management, Books, Certification, Events, PMI-ACP

PMBOK Guide 6th Edition and Agile Practice Guide – Impacts on Credentials

On September 6, 2017, the PMI published the new PMBOK® Guide 6th Edition and the accompanying Agile Practice Guide. As co-author of the PMBOK® Guide agile content and chair of the Agile Practice Guide, it was great to see these projects finally come to fruition. They represent hundreds of hours of unpaid volunteer work by everyone who worked on them. However, anyone considering taking their PMP or PMI-ACP is probably wondering if / how these new releases impact their study plans? The good news is, minimally. Since while the PMBOK® Guide sees some significant changes such as a new appendix on the use of “Agile, adaptive, iterative and hybrid approaches” the Exam Content Outlines for the PMP and PMI-ACP are […]

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Uncategorized

Spreading Agile to the PMI

After seeing a mismatch between the needs of modern projects and the traditional techniques being used to manage them, I have committed my career to update mainstream project management thinking with more modern approaches. In addition to local PMI Chapter volunteer and mentor roles, I have been involved in the following global initiatives. 2000 Co-authored the first white paper about using agile with structured project management “Using DSDM with PRINCE2” 2001-2003 Submitted multiple presentation proposals to PMI Global Congress on using agile instead of predictive approaches for high change, high uncertainty projects – all rejected, likely because they seemed dismissive of predictive approaches. 2004 Submitted “Using Agile Alongside the PMBOK Guide” proposal PMI Global Congress – Accepted. Presented PMI’s first […]

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Agile Project Management, Books, Leadership, Personal Agility, Planning, Teams, Theory of Constraints, Warning Signs

The Importance of Focus

I have an old-fashioned Edison bulb desk lamp. It’s to remind me to focus (and because I like steampunk, industrial design). A 40-watt incandescent bulb will barely light a room, but a 40-watt laser can cut through aluminium, leather, and wood. It is the same amount of light energy, just focussed instead of being diffused. The same principle applies to our attention, work and teams. Diffused and scattered there is not much impact. Focussed and concentrated that energy is very impactful. Removing distractions and focussing on a single deliverable at a time allows us to complete our work faster with fewer defects. Aligning a team to a common vision and purpose directs their energy towards it. No longer diffused to […]

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