PMP

On Monday this week I passed my PMP exam. It was easier than I thought. Though the process to get ready was rather long and that must have contributed to the easiness I now feel about the test process. I started off late in May and with a few weeks-long breaks in my study it's only October when I finally got to take the test. I should feel some sort of excitement I guess but the only thing that I can consciously feel is relief, a big one actually :)

I heard people say that PMP study was boring for them. Not for me. I didn't enjoy it, don't get me wrong, but it was not boring. Time consuming indeed, excellent sleeping medicine for sure :) but not boring in a sense when you do something because you have to and can't help but regret the time wasted.

What it was for me one might ask? Best of all, a way to systematize my knowledge and pick up on the right vocabulary and professional language. That is essentially the outcome for me, plus of course the label for the resume. People in PMI require project managers to advance in their careers and get better in the profession. So I can say I just complied with the PMI Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct :)

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One of our executives approached me the other day and wondered why I picked the PMI certification and not some sort of "agile label", a SCRUM master or something else of that kind.

SCRUM, RUP and other life-cycle models / management methodologies for software development projects are specific to the software industry. PMI is industry-agnostic and does not teach a particular life-cycle model. Instead, it leaves life-cycle specifics to the particular industry and calls it "application area". PMI flies high above that focusing on major things and areas of concerns a project manager in any business domain should be dealing with daily. And it is in fact true. Person in charge of the project will be dealing with stakeholders, planning, scope management, risks, etc. In areas of quality management it lines up with ISO standards and CMMI models as well as Six Sigma. And again, it would be wrong to consider CMM/CMMI and ISO a development methodology, though I often hear people associating it with the waterfall-ish (less or more iterative but non-agile) model. But it's like apples and oranges, often cross-cutting and not necessary conflicting concerns. Primavera Systems, by the way, has their true SCRUM-based development process ISO certified.