Performance Domains and Agile: How PM Training Will (and Won't) Change

PM College instructor William Athayde, J.D., PMP, DASM, is one of the SMEs we rely on to inform our project management curriculum development. With the publication of the Seventh Edition of PMI’s PMBOK® Guide, naturally the course materials and structure of how project management is taught has to undergo a hard look. Bill and I talked for over an hour about what he sees as critical for the future, especially for participants in his PM Essentials classes, who may be new to the discipline. Here are some highlights:

Q: How big a change do you see happening in PM College’s courses?

A: A change, certainly. But it’s not a seismic shift. When you look at the Principles in the new PMBOK® Guide, you see the things that we have been teaching for decades: how to lead teams, how to engage stakeholders, how to deliver appropriate business outcomes. We’ve taught that all project managers have to be sensitive to the context within which the project is being performed. And we’ve had a steadily increasing focus on value over the years, on benefits realization, and on performance measurement. So, really, the PMBOK changed not away from our course content, but more closely aligned with it. It’s good that PMI is focusing more on the value delivered by projects, and not so much on the nuts and bolts of processes. The truth is, you always had to deliver value. Otherwise, why were you doing the project?

Q: What about the Agile and adaptive theme—which was broached in the previous edition of the PMBOK® Guide, but more so in the Seventh Edition?

A: PMI, by adopting Disciplined Agile, has recognized that one project may have various teams using different project approaches/methodologies on their part of the project.  Disciplined Agile also emphasizes that each team must pick its own “way of working,” and project managers need to exercise caution when restricting the options that a team may select.

I like the thinking of Dave Thomas (AKA “Pragmatic Dave,” one of the original signers of the Agile Manifesto), who said something like, “Agile is dead, work with agility.” Project managers always had to work around resource shortages, scope changes and risk events. It’s one of the strengths of project management – and you saw that in your research on 2020 – that PMs are flexible and have a way of rising to the occasion. You try something and if it doesn’t work, you try something else. What I see the new PMI documents doing, is acknowledging that this agility is a feature, not a bug. We’ve gone from “change is bad and must be controlled” to “life is change. Deal with it!”  Change management has always been an integral part of good project management; and the best project managers have always been known for their ability to overcome the challenges associated with unplanned changes.

Our PM Essentials course textbook was already updated to jive with PMBOK® Guide Sixth Edition and now we are looking at ways to add in new content from the Seventh Edition without, as they say, throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We still need the essentials! Plus a mindset of adaptability and a focus on results.

[Editor’s note: You can read more wisdom from Bill Athayde here and here.]