I've heard a lot of people knocking the PMI recently and especially the PMBOK as being a waste of time and now I've even seen a website which seems to throw obscentities at PMI eg the site.... www.pmsucks.blogspot.com
What do others think is PMI and the BOK as bad as everybody says or is it worth joining? Saving Changes...
To respond specifically to Eric Blair or whoever you really are - Since you seem to be so knowledgeable on the subject, I’d be interested to know exactly how many projects you have managed in your career, what the average budget was, # of resources, and the statistics on how many of those projects were brought in on time, on budget and met the success criteria as defined at the beginning of the project.
From your postings, I would suspect that you have never managed a serious project beyond a million dollars or six months or that has crossed multiple companies.
Your comment about “very few academics at such gatherings” shows how little you know. At the last PMI sponsored event I attended, there were no less than eight Phd’s in attendance (out of a total crowd of about thirty).
Personally, it is my opinion that people like you are the very people that give project management a bad name. I don’t care what organization you belong to or which methodology you subscribe to. When you get right down to it, the foundation and theories of project management are the same in any industry or situation. Whether you do it formally or informally, projects will always have the following:
• Scope
• Budget
• Risk management
• Issue management
• Change management
• Schedule
o Work Break Down Structure
o Resource Plan
You can either manage a project or let it manage you. If you manage the project, you are a project manager. If you let the project manage you are nothing but a hack.
Should you want to put your money where your mouth is, you would work from inside PMI – show us all how wrong we are and volunteer to lead up one of the project standards. Go to http://pmi.org/info/PP_CurrentStandardsProjects.asp to see a list of current projects.
All of the above being said, I do agree with other posts in this thread – just because you are a certified as a project management professional, does not necessarily mean you are a great project manager. At the same time, I would submit that it is the same in all professions. Just because someone has MD after there name, doesn’t always mean I’d trust them to be my doctor. It just means they were good at passing exams….
Regarding whether or not to get your PMP certification – I don’t see how it would hurt you. As I was looking for a position, I noticed about 75% of the postings stated that a PMP was required. As I’ve said before, doesn’t make you any better necessarily but it certainly gets you through the screening process. Saving Changes...
Agree with you to some extent, Bethany. Specially where you say that big budget projects are where the principles taught at PMI can be best appreciated in action. Thats also what I was trying to suggest- best appreciated when applied.
But I would still be of the opinion that there is a limit upto which standardization would help. Although I am still sure that there is nothing that PMI would teach to 'destroy' that scope of creativity- or lets call it exceptions.
But would you say that if not for PMP there wouldn't be Project Managers of repute? I'm sure you won't. Saving Changes...
Personally, I have a tendency to side with Eric, (whomever he may really be)for PMI of today is nowhere near the PMI "BC".... Before Carter.
First, I am an not an "accidental" project manager- Been doing this for 35+ years, mostly in construction project management. And my projects have included big ones and small ones, all around the world.
Secondly, for over 12 years, I was an active PMI member, supporter and contributor to PMI, until Virgil Carter took over, and turned a wonderful, not-for-profit professional organization into a business- and one that competes against its own members to boot.
The "bad news" is despite hiring a "new" CEO, (who I know to be a decent and compassionate human being) it appears the elected BOD remains at best an ineffective group of people to direct the organization to be customer focused and achieve the original objectives of the organization before Virgil and his cronies hijacked it.....
Three hot issues I would like to see addressed promptly- 1) The level of customer service from the front line PMI HQ staff is ABYSMAL, especially as it relates to PMP Exam Applications. RECOMMENDATIONS- Benchmark PMI's staff at all levels against Nordstroms, and link a significant portion of their compensation to achieving that level of customer care and satisfaction;
2) The "Copyright" policy PMI has allowed their legal counsel to perpetuate is downright NEANDERTHAL and totally inappropiate in the "Knowledge Age". This policy is keeping the "best and brightest" from participating, resulting in disasters such as OPM3. RECOMMENDATION- The GWU Masters Degree program, under the leadership of Dr. Frank Anbari, PE, PMP, negotiated an agreement which gives PMI almost total use of any knowledge contributed by anyone, HOWEVER, it reserves the rights of each contributor to maintain ownership of their contribution for the purpose of creating derivative works. Why not throw out the current agreement and adopt the GWU model?
3) Circa 1998, PMI posted a FAQ and other communications to get the membership to vote for "Policy Governance". In those documents, PMI clearly explained that the members were the "moral owners" of the organization and that the elected BOD have the obligation to put the needs, wants and expectations of the member/owners of the organization AHEAD of those of the PMI HQ staff. RECOMMENDATIONS- Repost these communications on the PMI website and made available to all the new members as part of their membership package. These documents should serve as the "PMI Members Bill of Rights" and be used to guide the elected BOD members in the fiduciary responsibility they have to the "moral owners" of the organization- those people who pay dues.
These are but three of the most pressing issues that I would like to see addressed, and with a few "new faces" joining the BOD, maybe some of them will have the guts and/or the perseverance to get PMI HQ under control and delivering on what was promised..... In the meantime, keep up the good work, Eric.... You are speaking words of truth, and whether you have experience as a project manager or not, you are saying things which need to be said........
BR,
Paul D. Giammalvo, CDT, PMP, CCE, MScPM, PhD Candidate
Hi All, not sure if anyone has visited Eric Blair's blogspot, http://pmsucks.blogspot.com but it seems it no longer exists...... Now, I wonder what happened to it? Do I dare ask, is "Eric Blair" still alive? Or did someone (or some organization) "off" him? Eric, where are you??? You aren't sleeping with Jimmy Hoffa, are you? We need more like you....... Come back....... Saving Changes...
It is disappointing to me that PMI does not take this thread in the most constructive context possible, as an input to a Q/C Q/A cycle and seek understand the indicated deficiencies, to identify the root causes, and to seek continuous improvement. At least, I have seen no post here that takes this position, posted by PMI. Of course, there are tremendous areas for improvment, and of course different people see different aspects of these areas, as symptoms or end results of root causes. From my perspective there are some burning issues, some fix-it-now-or-die critical problems that must be resolved by PMI. I have promoted these issues to PMI and to my local PMI Chapter as I see them, as best I can, and have not been warmly received, or positively cast, for having enough concern and professionalism to want to improve an association to which I belong. That is a bad sign, in my opinion. As for my background, I ran Disaster Recovery Projects for EDS in 1979 at the Home Office (DRC1) in Dallas, Texas. I have been doing Project work ever since, and have dealt with many different projects in many different vertical markets. My take on the PMI approach is that it too heavily preaches a methodology or practice guide (PMBOK) without preaching the corollary results-orientation / feedback and tuning cycles. Case studies of what works in each professional field, or vertical market, as published by PMI to date, and which I have seen, are abysmally lacking from an academic perspective - WBS, MS Project Plan (with baselines), Closure documentation and actual practice specifics are uniformly omitted. What works and is an effective adaptation or implementation of the PMBOK advocated practices in Health Care is vastly different from what works in Manufacturing or Government - even in regards to the same general scope of work such as IT systems. I can say the same of SEI and Six-Sigma. And I can say from personal experience that highly skilled Project / Program Managers can succeed very well without strict adherance to any of the recognized "standards", as they did for the past 10,000 years or so IE. Who Built The Pyramids Anyway? Adherance to standards does not ensure success, and can cause failure - having a roadmap does not mean the bridges are actually in place or that the roads are safe to drive on in your vehicle at your speed in the weather you find there when you drive those roads, etc etc. I perceive the PMBOK as one roadmap. One of several. It does seem to me that PMI has become a magnet for certain pernicious and foul, corrupting influences or interested parties seeking business or financial gains based advantages. Key symptoms of such failure points in my opinion can be identified when an organization, any organization, itself does not abide by and support the letter and spirit (derivative activities) of its stated Code of Ethics. This was true in Enron and Arthur Andersen and many others, and is also true of PMI. Such failures, once looked for, are glaringly obvious and can only be explained as sponsor level issues (GOC / BOD issues) from where I sit. If PMI cures these issues, such as conforming to the customs and practices and legal and normal and usual business standards of the locale in which their Chapters operate (as I live and work in the USA, I understand these issues specific to ongoing PMI activities in the USA), then they have a bright future. If they do not cure these issues they are writing their own epitaph and helping them is in my view akin to trying to restrain someone who has a Death Wish-you have to lock em in a padded room and retrain them, which is simply not practical when dealing with invented entities such as corporations or associations. To put it another way, PMI is what it is, and will be whatever it becomes, and that is determined by whether or not they take inputs such as Eric's as informative and indicative of Q/A and Q/C cycle control-invoking actvities being needed to respond and improve... continuously improve. I choose not to let PMI decide my fate, I choose not to let PMI define the upper limits of my success, I choose not to adopt those corrupt practices, I choose not to embrace and adopt those failure-points of which I am aware in PMI as an association and in the PMBOK as a professional publication. In summary, natural born Project Managers don't need PMI, but PMI does need them. If PMI drives these core competency best of the best professionals away, or oversees their corruption and eventual failure and destruction, then all that will be left is a shell, which may persist for a few years, but which will stagnate and eventually fail of its own structural corruption and weaknesses. So, the direct result is, for me, what it has been for the best Project / Program managers I have had the priviledge to work with, which is to belong to PMI but to strictly limit participation and input. Which is what the vast majority of the best of the best in Project / Program Management do.... at least that is my view. Saving Changes...
I was relieved to see PMI embrace a Code of Ethics, with appropriate processes for handling of complaints regarding misbehavior by PMI certified professionals.
It seems to me that any professional organization must do some policing of its professional population. And since PMI took these steps some years ago, as an organization they do seem to have reaped some benefits, but also still have some challenges.
While the PMBOK has its shortcomings, so do other methodologies and fields of practice - including ITIL and Six Sigma. It is up to the professional to implement the known best practices in ways appropriate and suitable to the workspace at hand, in my opinion.
Cheers
Larry Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
I’ve been part of 3 PMI standards in the last couple of years, and while the standards setting process has some rigidity (aligned with ANSI and ISO standards setting processes) I can vouch that it represents what the hundreds of PMs participating in the standards really consider important.
It’s easy to stay on the sideline and criticize the players – I would strongly invite anyone that thinks PMBOK can be improved to volunteer for the next edition and actually make a difference!
PMI’s Project Management Professional (PMP)® credential is the most important industry-recognized certification for project managers. Recently I went for a PMP prep course by the training provider you have mentioned, Instructer was too good and I passed with relative ease. Looking forwards to apply what I learned in PMP classes in my company Saving Changes...
Luis BrancoCEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, LdªCarcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Has the PMBOK Guide been helpful in supporting the exercise of the Project Manager profession?
I think the answers to this question are the most important ... my suggestion is that each of us answer you in all honesty Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hello again,
Over the last weeks/months there were a lot of unfavorable comments (to be polite) about the new PMBOK Guide - but nobody "up there" seems to be paying attention. And now, with the bigger worldwide issues related to COVIT-19, this seems to be completely swept under the rug.
However, the pandemic will pass sometime, and we'll be left in hand with a PMBOK that received over 5000 comments for few pages of text - how can this text have consensus? To not even mention that most comments were responded with "text was eliminated" - so what's going to be left, couple of pages to represent "the standard for project management"?
There is no second exposure for "the standard" to ensure that the remaining text has consensus, there is no exposure for the Guide itself - which is the most of the document. How can this be claimed to represent the collective knowledge and expertise of the project management community?
I'm hearing about a number of people fed up with an ineffective process that plan to send letters directly to the Board of Directors members - at the end of the day, they are our representatives and the highest governance authority, so whom better to listen to our concerns.
I plan to join the chorus and send a letter myself - and I encourage every one that has something to say on this essential issue for PMI community to do the same (maybe if they receive enough letters they will take action).
