New at PM College: Agile PM Courses and Disciplined Agilist Instructors!

One of the many things we've had cooking behind the scenes during the Covid-19 lull (see more about our PPP-funded projects here and here!) are new virtual instructor-led (VILT) courses designed to help our clients enter the era of agile transformation.  Two of those have now launched:

Intro to Agile provides a basic understanding of agile, independent of any single brand or methodology. Participants will dive into the concepts behind agile and its mindset. A common vocabulary is developed that allows practitioners to discuss issues. 

Leveraging Agility  presents the many versions of adaptive project management approaches, focusing on some of the most popular ones and identifying some tools to explore. The goal is to identify tools, concepts, and approaches that we can put to work immediately in a variety of projects; and to create a mindset to continue to explore and analyze tools and techniques that we can apply and adapt.

To go along with these new course developments, our instructors have been reinforcing their skills and credentials. Already experienced and informed, Senior Instructors Ruth Elswick and Bill Athayde went "back to school" to gain PMI's new Disciplined Agilist certification (CDA). I spoke to them the week after they had completed the training.

Q: What is important about this certification?

Bill Athayde: PMI has chosen to go this route, so clearly, this the way to go: bringing together Disciplined Agile and Net Objectives, they create a powerful force in competition with some of the other major agile training providers. But I think there is room for everyone under this tent because there’s not “one size fits all" with Agile.

Ruth Elswick: we had an opportunity to take this class and decided to jump on the bandwagon. As Bill says, there’s room for multiple approaches on a project, and we should be able to guide participants in our training courses on all of them.

My concern is that the shift – I would say, almost a 180-degree turn—that we have taken since the days of “classic” project management was geared toward construction and defense. The concerns at that time were that IT and other development organizations had difficulty in applying many of the concepts.  I hope that the more traditional users will see the value in applying agile or adaptive methods. That may not happen if they don’t fully understand that “Disciplined Agile” is not just geared towards IT.  DA principles can be applied to many different types of projects.

Bill: I think experienced practitioners are recognizing that we must pick the best tools and life cycle for the work we are doing. As Joshua Barnes said in a webinar I attended about the Disciplined Agile/FLEX and Net Objectives, “context counts.” Team members, not management, should be picking the approach that will work, project by project … and even phase by phase.

The great thing is that these new ideas are just as applicable to portfolio management and business applications. Like “classic” PM, Disciplined Agile is a mindset and set of tools that is industry-agnostic.

Ruth: What I really like is that they emphasize that the team needs to understand the selection rationale and business side of the portfolio of projects. We have talked for a long time in project management circles about self-governing teams; now, I feel this concept has reached the mainstream. Even if organizations only take baby steps towards this idea it will work wonders for project outcomes and staff morale. And, speaking of stakeholders … it’s also very positive that DA involves the customer early on.  Requirements and estimates have always been a thorny problem. Now, the mantra is changing to, “it’s not bad to fail, but fail early and succeed sooner.” I think this is more realistic a view.

So, overall, what I see are ideas that have been around for a while, but perhaps circulating at the fringe of the profession, are now being placed in a central role. And that’s good!

Bill: DA recognizes what good project managers have always done. They have always had to be flexible, changing approach to fit the situation. DA just underscores what we have always taught: be realistic and flexible.  Adapt as you go. Now we have a framework that is more supportive of what the daily reality of the work requires.

Ruth: DA is now on everyone’s mind. It won’t change what we teach, fundamentally, but will perhaps have an impact on the structure of it, with more emphasis on the people side, and that’s not a bad thing.

Editor's note: Read more about Disciplined Agile here, and about PMI's acquisitions of DA and FLEX.

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