PMP,CSM very general information for everybody

PMP (Project Management Professional) Certificate:

PMP(Project Management Professional) certificate by PMI is a test of knowledge and also demonstrates certain amount of project management experience. Is it a test of competancy? IMO, the answer is NO. You can be a PMP and somehow still manage to be a bad Project Manager. But probability is that, your chances of being a good project manager are higher if you have done PMP. My own experience tells that, PMP provides you right tools in your hand to make sure you increase the probability of success/graceful end of the project.

Moreover framework for PMP is such that, you have to constantly keep on updating your knowledge if you need to continue with the PMP certification.


CSM (Certified Scrum Master) Certificate:

Agile! My favorite project management methodology. And it can prove to be a big trap as well! :) Agile makes things visible sooner. But agile without proper knowledge and involvement from 'relevant stakeholders' is like giving a nuclear weapon in a monkey's hand. It is a formula for failure. So does CSM Certificate and training really help? IMO absolutely yes, if you are really serious about 'Agile'. But just like PMP does not mean successful projects, CSM does not mean CSM will give you gurantee of success in agile. Morever CSM can be achieved simply by attending 2 days of training (and taking optional exam) towards the end of it. So CSM training shows you all the traps to avoid obvious failures.



GIST PMP and CSM:

a) They are tools to equip project managers to increase probability of success.
b) They definately demonstrate knowledge, but not necessarily competance. They are recommended but not mandatory.
c) They mean a person is serious about 'Project Management' field and has urge to be successful.

My experiments begin!

Today when I started typing for this blog, my first thought was “What is my purpose for starting blog with name ‘My experiments with project management’?” I kept looking for answers for some time. Soon I knew the reason and it was that, ‘I had overwhelming need inside me to ‘express myself’ as a ‘project manager’ AND ‘connect, share and learn from experiences with others from the fraternity’. So immediate subsequent thought was, this has to be different than my personal blog. Yes, but how: -

• This blog somewhere should actually reach people where the subject of the ‘project management’ is either of interest or of some concern.
• This blog should make some serious contributions to the field of project management. (IT) project management in particular.
• Each blog should be based on my own experiences in the field of project management.
  Each blog should refer to some good references to resources for project management in internet.
• Each blog should make an attempt to connect ,network with people of common interest on this topic
• Focus should be on consistency. One blog every fortnight (NOW that is commitment alright? I am planning as well as hoping that I do not have to edit this sentence J
  Attempt should be on making blog interesting to even those people are not from this fraternity.

With the constitution of this blog in place above K, let me introduce myself. Yes, this is not an anonymous blog by any chance. My name is Harshawardhan Pandit. I am an IT project manager in Infospectrum India Pvt Ltd. I have been in a formal IT Project Management role since last 4,5 years. I recently did my PMP. I plan to complete my CSM next month. I have worked, lead projects of various sizes, in various domains and of various complexities those different methodologies pure waterfall, to pure agile or combination.

Ok, sounded like an advertisement for myself. But, it was purely for the sake of introducing my background and wanted to act as my written commitment towards the above said goal of this blog.

This blog is a project for me and above mentioned points is a baseline plan for this project.

It’s time to execute now!