April 10, 2013 at 08:55Whom to send to study PMBok
Some time ago, I changed jobs, and was actively seeking work as a manager - project manager in the field of IT. And I noticed a fairly frequent demand for knowledge of the PMI methodology, PMBok.
And at my current job there are quite a few project managers, let's say entry-level and intermediate level. The company's management has many complaints about how projects are implemented. What to do? The first thought is to send everyone to study project management and it is best to give a PMI methodology.
But I remembered that I had already advised some of my former colleagues to read books on project management, and I heard extremely negative reviews. “This has nothing to do with practice” - this is perhaps the most loyal review. But then I did not attach much importance to this, there was no time to sort out the reasons. But then I decided to start, to study the issue on my own.
First I studied the short course “Practical PMBoK in 5 days” (I don’t provide the link - I'm afraid they will consider it advertising, but this course is free and easy to find on the Internet), then I downloaded books in Russian and English.
And this is what I endured for myself. This course is really useless for beginner and intermediate level managers. It is written for a completely different audience, and has completely different goals.
There is a scientist - theorist, scientist practitioner, but there is an engineer at a factory, company, etc. The PMBok course is for academic theorists. Studying it with an engineer at a factory is completely pointless.
When I was a student, I was shocked by the formulation of one theorem, at that time I memorized it as a poem! “A homomorphic image of a group is isomorphic to a factor in a group by the kernel of a homomorphism” - class! I wrote and it’s pleasant in my heart. Ask your friends programmers - do they understand anything here? But this is one of the main theorems in algebra, on which much of programming is based. Now, many years later, I find, no, no, in my life, in my work examples of what this theorem says, but as a student I just learned it as a beautiful set of words. I could even prove it, but I had no understanding of how it can be applied in life then.
That's also with project management. It doesn’t make much difference for PMBok whether you are doing a software development project, or building a house, creating a new bank or opening a drug production. And this is great for those involved in the theory. It’s great to see how some methods and schemes work on such different content projects. But this is completely unacceptable for entry-level managers, and perhaps, middle level, too.
The manager, most often not up to theory, he needs practice. How to make your specific project more effective, how to make it successful, what risks may be, etc. These are the issues that interest the manager, and the manager in the field of software development is not at all interested in the problems and risks in building houses.
I believe that the theoretical course PMBok can only be taught to experienced project managers (with more than 10 years of experience), who will then adapt it to the area in which they worked and who will subsequently be able to conduct courses such as: “Fundamentals of PMI in developing web projects "," Fundamentals of PMI for construction ", etc.
But a simple memorization of PMI processes will not lead to anything good, even more disastrous for the project, there will be consequences if the manager suddenly starts to carry out the project 100% according to this methodology, often replacing the meaning by writing formal pieces of paper.
And at my current job there are quite a few project managers, let's say entry-level and intermediate level. The company's management has many complaints about how projects are implemented. What to do? The first thought is to send everyone to study project management and it is best to give a PMI methodology.
But I remembered that I had already advised some of my former colleagues to read books on project management, and I heard extremely negative reviews. “This has nothing to do with practice” - this is perhaps the most loyal review. But then I did not attach much importance to this, there was no time to sort out the reasons. But then I decided to start, to study the issue on my own.
First I studied the short course “Practical PMBoK in 5 days” (I don’t provide the link - I'm afraid they will consider it advertising, but this course is free and easy to find on the Internet), then I downloaded books in Russian and English.
And this is what I endured for myself. This course is really useless for beginner and intermediate level managers. It is written for a completely different audience, and has completely different goals.
There is a scientist - theorist, scientist practitioner, but there is an engineer at a factory, company, etc. The PMBok course is for academic theorists. Studying it with an engineer at a factory is completely pointless.
When I was a student, I was shocked by the formulation of one theorem, at that time I memorized it as a poem! “A homomorphic image of a group is isomorphic to a factor in a group by the kernel of a homomorphism” - class! I wrote and it’s pleasant in my heart. Ask your friends programmers - do they understand anything here? But this is one of the main theorems in algebra, on which much of programming is based. Now, many years later, I find, no, no, in my life, in my work examples of what this theorem says, but as a student I just learned it as a beautiful set of words. I could even prove it, but I had no understanding of how it can be applied in life then.
That's also with project management. It doesn’t make much difference for PMBok whether you are doing a software development project, or building a house, creating a new bank or opening a drug production. And this is great for those involved in the theory. It’s great to see how some methods and schemes work on such different content projects. But this is completely unacceptable for entry-level managers, and perhaps, middle level, too.
The manager, most often not up to theory, he needs practice. How to make your specific project more effective, how to make it successful, what risks may be, etc. These are the issues that interest the manager, and the manager in the field of software development is not at all interested in the problems and risks in building houses.
I believe that the theoretical course PMBok can only be taught to experienced project managers (with more than 10 years of experience), who will then adapt it to the area in which they worked and who will subsequently be able to conduct courses such as: “Fundamentals of PMI in developing web projects "," Fundamentals of PMI for construction ", etc.
But a simple memorization of PMI processes will not lead to anything good, even more disastrous for the project, there will be consequences if the manager suddenly starts to carry out the project 100% according to this methodology, often replacing the meaning by writing formal pieces of paper.