You may or may not know about the PMI which is the largest project management p
rofessional body in the world.
(If you don’t know about it, take a few hours and go visit their website at PMI.org and in particular get your hands on their document “A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge.”)
The PMI is a very large and wide ranging organisation. Among the many things it does is host or convene SIGs, which are specific interest groups. One of the PMI’s SIGs is the “Students of Project Management” SIG (which has a really really bad website.)
It’s less than a decade old and last year passed a 700 member milestone.
As a PM student you are eligible for discounted membership of the PMI, and can also become a member of the SIG which gets you access to a bunch of neat features like;
- Access to PMI’s publications (Including the PMBOK)
- Access to PMI’s Library, The Jim Snyder Knowledge & Wisdom Center
- Sharing ideas, “best practices” and asking advice from “seasoned” PM practitioners to a peer group.
- It’s a Competitive Edge for the Student seeking employment in the PM discipline.
- It’s an advantage to belong to the premier project management organization in the world.
- Students are exposed to “best practices” through the PMI publications and the SIG.
So, have a think about joining. And maybe you could be the one to sort out their awful website!
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Or you could join asapm which offers:
– Discounted membership for students.
– Performance-based competence certifications (rather than a knowledge-based one).
– An opportunity to influence the direction of the organization since we are still small.
I wrote most of the original (1996) PMBOK Guide, and it still boggles my mind that they haven’t fixed some of the errors that we made in that version.
Or you could join asapm which offers:
– Discounted membership for students.
– Performance-based competence certifications (rather than a knowledge-based one).
– An opportunity to influence the direction of the organization since we are still small.
I wrote most of the original (1996) PMBOK Guide, and it still boggles my mind that they haven’t fixed some of the errors that we made in that version.
It’s amazing to me that in this era of the need to be extremely quick-footed and responsive to quickly changing business dynamics that PMI is still around. Project Management, in its classical form, is all about risk mitigation and aligning level of effort to resource availability along with proper ordering of tasks. I have nothing against risk mitigation but there are many simpler methods to managing a project than PMI’s approach.
I was a student of the PMI method for many years, even championed it at a previous employer, but I realized that for all the “control” to the project and planning, we were losing sight of what really mattered: getting a product into production.
Just figure out what needs to be done (at a very high level), add WAGs, and then go. This entire process should only take a day at the most — not weeks of project plans, reviews, risk mitigation plans, milestone setting, blah blah blah.
To me, PMI is a brand of project management that fits in well with military and government agencies. It’s overhead for the sake of overhead.
It’s amazing to me that in this era of the need to be extremely quick-footed and responsive to quickly changing business dynamics that PMI is still around. Project Management, in its classical form, is all about risk mitigation and aligning level of effort to resource availability along with proper ordering of tasks. I have nothing against risk mitigation but there are many simpler methods to managing a project than PMI’s approach.
I was a student of the PMI method for many years, even championed it at a previous employer, but I realized that for all the “control” to the project and planning, we were losing sight of what really mattered: getting a product into production.
Just figure out what needs to be done (at a very high level), add WAGs, and then go. This entire process should only take a day at the most — not weeks of project plans, reviews, risk mitigation plans, milestone setting, blah blah blah.
To me, PMI is a brand of project management that fits in well with military and government agencies. It’s overhead for the sake of overhead.
Jason –
As the person mostly responsible for the PMBOK Guide, I have mixed feelings about your post. Why?
– I believe that many of the changes made since 1996 have added complexity without adding value.
– I believe that many (possibly most) of the individuals and organizations who advocate for “PMBOK Guide compliance” don’t actually have a clue about what the document actually says. There was an enormous amount of flexibility in the original. One of the first paragraphs even says that each project must decide what is right for it.
– How would you like to fly in a plane that was designed by a team that spent a day on planning? Don’t assume that what is right for your kinds of projects is right for others.
Duncan
Jason –
As the person mostly responsible for the PMBOK Guide, I have mixed feelings about your post. Why?
– I believe that many of the changes made since 1996 have added complexity without adding value.
– I believe that many (possibly most) of the individuals and organizations who advocate for “PMBOK Guide compliance” don’t actually have a clue about what the document actually says. There was an enormous amount of flexibility in the original. One of the first paragraphs even says that each project must decide what is right for it.
– How would you like to fly in a plane that was designed by a team that spent a day on planning? Don’t assume that what is right for your kinds of projects is right for others.
Duncan
Jason,
I’d suggest your approach of “Just figure out what needs to be done (at a very high level), add WAGs, and then go.” is highly dependent on the context and domain. Generalizing that Project Management Method has lead to complete disasters in other domains, like ERP (Dow Chemical SAP), large construction (the Big Dig), aircraft development (A-12), enterprise integrtaion (IRS consoludation), and 1,000′s of other non-trival projects.
Could you tell us in what context and domain your approach has been successful?
Jason,
I’d suggest your approach of “Just figure out what needs to be done (at a very high level), add WAGs, and then go.” is highly dependent on the context and domain. Generalizing that Project Management Method has lead to complete disasters in other domains, like ERP (Dow Chemical SAP), large construction (the Big Dig), aircraft development (A-12), enterprise integrtaion (IRS consoludation), and 1,000′s of other non-trival projects.
Could you tell us in what context and domain your approach has been successful?