Traditional and Agile PM Integration Pains: A Positive Sign?

Mike Griffiths is an experienced project manager, author and consultant who works for PMI as a subject matter expert. Before joining PMI, Mike consulted and managed innovation and technology projects throughout Europe, North and South America for 30+ years. He was co-lead for the PMBOK Guide—Seventh Edition, lead for the Agile Practice Guide, and contributor to the PMI-ACP and PMP exam content outlines. Outside of PMI, Mike maintains the websites www.LeadingAnswers.com about leading teams and www.PMillustrated.com, which teaches project management for visual learners.

  Agile   Integration Management   Schedule Management   Scheduling  

There has been some hubbub on the PMI Agile Yahoo Group these last couple of weeks. A lively back-and-forth about a slide deck published online with the August 2010 issue of  PMI Network magazine entitled, “Is Agile Right for Your Project?”

The slideshow suggested that agile can be an invasion of privacy, and that its practices are unconventional and often difficult to learn. It also explained that agile is trust-based, so you might want to hold off on agile methods until trust has been firmly established across the team. But this could be claimed about any team endeavor and is not really reserved for agile. An example of some of the feedback it generated can be seen here.

On the one hand, I think PMI should be applauded for making some steps toward providing information about agile project management for its members. On the other hand, the material could have been vetted by some members of the PMI Agile Community of Practice before its release to smooth out the contentious issues and avoid the backlash.

I recall the original request for information on agile adoption guidance was forwarded to the PMI Agile Community of Practice mailing list back in June. I submitted my thoughts on the topic (posted previously here), and many other people joined in the discussion thread. But I am not aware of what, if any, of this information made it to the …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.