CSM

Today I read an article about what it takes to become a certified ScrumMaster, Practitioner, and Trainer.  I didn’t plan it, but it was an extreme coincidence since I just enrolled in Mike Cohn’s CSM & Agile Estimating and Planning courses earlier this morning.

Check out the article if you want to know more about “what it takes” to become a CSM, and read more here if you’re wondering what this Scrum thing is all about.

Back again…

Well, it has been quite some time since I’ve posted.  Sometimes the non-stop pace of life cannot be avoided, and some items need to be dropped off the priority list, at least for a while.

To get back in the swing of things, today’s article is quite a brief primer on “The Metaphors of Scrum.”  This may help those of you trying to explain or encourage others on the use of the Scrum process, especially those ‘glass is half empty’ types.

Don’t throw pebbles…

Today’s article is “Move Boulders, Don’t Throw Pebbles” by Kent McDonald.  At my work, we’re in the infancy of our agile development process, specifically Scrum.  As a fledgeling Scrum Master, I tend to watch for any new writings by Kent since he is a project manager for agile software development. 

Kent highlights some excellent points in this article; some of which I need to watch out for that I’ve already been doing that may be detrimental to the team’s velocity.  This is a very good article for Scrum Masters or any agile project managers.

Measure Quality

Today at work, we had a day-long session about Quality. Some general topics of the day were “What is Quality,” “How do you measure Quality,” “Where/When are Quality important,” and finally “What are our Quality goals.”

In an effort to be a bit better ‘prepared’ for the meeting, I came across an article entitled “You Get What You Measure-So Measure Quality” by Steven Jong. While not being entirely applicable to my company, it did help spur some ideas and thoughts during our discussions.

I reserve the right to revisit this topic in future posts.

And now, back to our program

I originally planned on posting every work day, but sometimes the best intentions… Anyway, I was out of town last week, so I didn’t plan on posting during that time anyway.

Now for the regularly scheduled post:
Today’s article is “A Man With A Plan” by Geof Lory. While a tad lite on the substance, it does make some rather good points in a well-written, anecdotal manner. It is a nice, brief read for those who are just setting out on the ‘planning’ frontier.

Scrum Primer

Today’s featured article is “Adaptive Project Management using Scrum” by Craig Murphy. This article is an excellent primer for anyone who is wondering what Scrum is and how it can affect their development goals.

If you have an interest in agile software development, project management, or the software development life cycle in general, this article is a must read!

Project Management; The other customer service

Today’s article, entitled “Did somebody say customer service?” focuses on how project management ties in with customer service. While it is a nice, thought-provoking article, it would have been better had the author explored the topic just a bit deeper. None the less, it was a good read to get your PM/CS juices flowing.

Agile can scale…

Today’s feature article is “Agile Can Scale: Inventing and Reinventing Scrum in Five Companies” by Jeff Sutherland

The article is well written and concise. It is more of a ‘proof of concept’ rather than a ‘how-to’ manual. There are several insightful tidbits throughout, one of which I even utilized to provide insight to my boss today.

I extend my thanks to the author for archiving it on his site so my favorite local librarian didn’t have to spend time on an inter-library loan for me.

Link to the past

One reason I wanted to start a blog (which in turn caused me to start this blog) was to keep track of the professional articles I read daily. These articles are for professional growth (geared toward project management mostly) and/or developing a broader (or deeper) understanding of my company’s market space.

Previously, I was archiving these articles with a simple 5 asterisk (*) scale in my bookmarks tab. Then along came Google browser synch came along and, in it’s infinite wisdom and replaced all of my work bookmarks with my personal bookmarks. Having never done this before (previously it only added bookmarks, not deleted them), I proceeded to use my bookmark folder for a bit longer. All was great for 2 weeks, and then GBS got hungry and ate most of my new, fresh links again. Here is a chunk of the data I was able to piece together from the bones for my own archival purposes.

****-Agile Project Leadership – Questions from the field
***.5-What does an agile project plan look like?
***-Project Management Best Practices

***-Project Parenthood – Agile Parenting: Focus on the Environment
***-Why People Don’t Listen… and Some Fun Things You Can Do About It
**-Managing Knowledge
**-MS CRM Implementation
*.5-Balanced Scorecard Strategy Map

*-Scrum QA Assessment
Building Successful Work Relationships–Playing In The Same Sandbox
Program and Project Mgmt: Understanding the Differences
Project Management 101
Project Management Basics
Project-Aligned Collaboration

And so it begins…

Welcome to PMP My Job: One man’s quest to improve himself, his company, and the processes that bind them all together.

Let me say this upfront: Verbosity is not my forte. Don’t expect me to wax poetically each post about every subject your heart has ever desired.

Why then, you ask, did I start a blog in the first place? The short answer: My wife told me to. Well, actually, I’ve discussed this idea with her multiple times, but I kept coming back to the point that *I am not a writer*. Each time she told me to ‘just start, and it will come to you,’ so I finally have.

For this blog, I will attempt to post on a daily basis (torture to a self-proclaimed non-writer). In it I will mainly be posting articles I’ve read each day, and there will be random smatterings of book reviews, process discussions, and general project management goodness.

In case you were wondering, no, I am not a certified PMP. Hopefully through this endeavor, I (along with any of you that care to read) will be able to track my progress in the pursuit thereof.

Thus ends day 1.