Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
At the risk of disturbing a hornet's nest, I'm curious about your opinions regarding the focus and the future of PMI. I've heard many comments about whether PMI should expand their horizons for disciplines that affect project managers, or whether it should more narrowly focus on the things that PMI already does well. This is related to- and yet distinct from- a conversation about whether PMI members should do the same.
In short, PMI really "owns" the international project management field. It's easily the largest and most recognizable project management organization, and the PMP is the gold standard of project management certifications. Like many organizations, though, PMI must decide how to use our resources. If it does not adapt, it could become irrelevant, but if it focuses on broadening its base, it risks losing focus on the core strengths that made it what it is today.
For example, PMI offers the ACP to certify Agile Professionals, presumably because we acknowledge that it's a good idea for a PM to have a foundation in Agile culture. Yet there is no similar PMI certification for Lean or Six Sigma, though these are also useful things with which mature PMs should be familiar. I assume PMI made a strategic decision to get ahead of the curve, but we still seem to be playing catch-up, and now even many project managers downplay the value of our so-called "traditional" project management best practices as described in the PMBOK.
Similarly, PMI offers the PMI-PBA (yes, the current focus on Business Analysis sparked this question). Again, business analysis skills are an excellent thing for a project manager to have, and there's no doubt that many PMs must "dual-hat" these duties. But is there a point where business analysis falls beyond the normal scope of project management? Do we de-value our roles as project managers when we assume too much?
These are just two simple examples of fairly complex strategic questions, and I don't presume to have answers, but I'd love to read your insights and opinions. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
As you can see I have both: PMI-ACP and PMI-PBA certifications (PMP obviously). And as a mean to improve myself I am working with the PMI to review standards and exam questions. I have the CBAP certification too. I started working with both concepts from the very begining of agile and business analysis before PMI put focus on those. Agile for the PMI is related to software only. I think is a great certification because is the only generalist certification (as far as I know) that will allow you to work as project manager in agile environments with total independence of the method you will use. About business analyst is a role totally different than project manager. The focus is different. Not all the project managers could work as business analyst and vice-verza. I think the work of PMI in certifications is correct: to maintain generalization. I do not agree to have a certification related to six sigma or something like that. I think generalization has to be mantained. Saving Changes...
