Process is a side effect of Communication not the other way around!!!

PROCESS PROCESS PROCESS

The more often than not battle cry of the Project Manager.

PMBOK teaches process and standards...
SCRUM is a process...
SO is XP...
SO is waterfall...

So what's the big deal? That means process is important right? Wrong!!!

Process is a child of communication. In an environment where there is little or no communication or mutual understanding of business objectives process is typically viewed as a liability because there is no context associated to how it will improve the business.

Conversely communication does not happen initially in a process environment it happens as organizations and individuals interact and identify areas for which they can agree upon and identify economies of scale. The interactions and communication ideally are identified and then held as a standard to be met or reproduced creating a "Process".

This is why I always cringe when I hear a PM say the solution is to create a process when the true answer is the PM needs to create a "dialogue" (read here communication) between the business objectives and the teams working on them and identify what is acceptable to both entities. Based off of the outcome of the dialogue then the process can be identified and followed.

PM's should never be in the business of bringing process to an organization but in the business of creating dialogues that allow an organization to build its own processes.

Ya Savvy?

-Optimal Optimus

Scrummtastic!!!

So I am now a newly minted Certified SCRUM Master!!!

Do I feel any different? Have the Project Management gods opened up their pearly gates and blessed me with a glimpse of arcana that will revolutionize my organization?

One word? No.

For those of us just joining the blog, I am not big on the seemingly growing trend of Methodology Fundamentalists growing out there and just like their Religious counterparts, they only seem to make things more difficult than they really are.

Just call me a secular bastard but bottom line it there are things that we can do in project management in business that take all these tools these methodologies and apply them judiciously and where appropriate to make significant gains.

Bottomline:
Results matter. How we get there whether pure XP, Scrum, Waterfall, Ninja Techniques from the Black Scrolls of Mu; Ship the product with minimal bugs/issues within expectations and everyone busts out the stoagie and we go home with the prom king/queen WOOT!!!

That said am I glad I took the training? Absolutely. It opened up some areas for improvement and experimentation to the hybrid model I have been employing . Will I sport the credential? Damn Skippy!!!

Above is probably one of the best pictures of the Agile Methodology I have seen to date. (I found it in a google search)

Image - 2008 ENVISAGE Technologies Corp.
1441 S. Fenbrook Lane - Bloomington, Indiana - 47401 - 812.330.7101

- Optimal Optimus