_png.png)
Project Management, Process Management, Program Management, Portfolio Management, communication, exception, risk, cost. schedule, change, process, communication, vendor management..., Does it feel like the list of management processes never ends?
From the outside looking in, the discipline of project management may seem overwhelming. Once in, you realize how the different concepts of project, program, and portfolio management, and their associated processes, logically fit together - and support each other.
This article is written as a reference for the seasoned project management professional as well as stakeholders or executives who desires to understand more about project management and their related processes.
Let's get started!
PMI (Project Management Institute) - PMI is a professional organization dedicated to the development of standards, research, education, publication, networking-opportunities in local chapters, hosting conferences and training seminars, and global accreditation in project management. PMI was started in 1969 and serves more than five million professionals including over 680,000 members in 217 countries and territories around the world. PMI is supported by 304 local chapters and 14,000 volunteers serving local members in over 180 countries.
There is PMI and there are all other project management references. PMI is the Defacto, numero uno, hands down, unparalleled, project management resource. Period. If you are serious about project management, you are a PMI member.
PMI certifications are the standard in project management accreditation and their PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) book is THE source for best of breed project management and related processes.
PMI is, and has been, integrated into the global project management community. Their training and references are up to date and change as the industry changes. PMI should be your number one project management reference.
APM (The Association for Project Management) - The APM is highly active in the UK with a commendably forward-looking approach to advocating for the role of Project management in society. Their purpose goals and offerings are similar to those of the PMI, on a smaller scale. APM has over 37,000 members, mostly in Europe and Hong Kong.
IAPM (The International Association of Project Managers) - The International Association of Project Managers (IAPM) is a global association and certification body for project managers. The organization is based in Liechtenstein.
Project Management Terms. Coursera is a training organization that has a fantastic list of project management terms, that can be found here. Great for a quick scroll through.
All Things Agile. Unlike the PMI, professional organizations in other areas of project management are not as complete or single-sourced. Agile leadership, management, software development, and related processes speaks to processes that focus on prioritization, customer feedback, and collaborations. For a high-level view of agile methods, you may want to start with this wiki- Agile Management article for the basics.
Another helpful reference is What is Agile Project Management from the APM (Association for Project Management).
Agile and Waterfall are both popular collaborative project management methodologies, but the main difference is that Agile is incremental and iterative, while Waterfall is linear and sequential.
To learn more about Scrum (type of Agile technology) training and certification, you may want to explore the Scrum Alliance.
Organizational Assessment and Maturity. Talk about a research, rabbit -hole; a search into organizational assessment and maturity takes you in many directions and layers deep. For our purposes, we are speaking of organizational maturity in the context of project and process management.
As a successor to CMM (capability maturity model 1987-1997) CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integrated) was originally developed for the Department of Defense (DOD). The short story is, the DOD needed a way to ensure organizations they contracted with had a level of organizational maturity, which would foster more successful outcomes for their many contracted projects and initiatives.
CMM and CMMI was developed by a group from industry, government, and the Carnegie Mellon University's, SEI (Software Engineering Institute). Now a subsidiary of ISACA, CMMI can be used to guide process improvement across a project, division, or an entire organization.
Check out ISACA's CMMI page.
CMMI's foundation are the 5 levels of organizational maturity -Initial, Managed, Defined, Quantitatively Managed, and Refined are important to understand. CMMI is my favorite resource to apply and understand concepts related to (project and process) organizational maturity.
The following are a few other quick references you may want to check out. Revisit this page. I will add more references over time.
ITIL - a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of the business
Six Sigma - a set of methodologies and tools used to improve business processes by reducing defects and errors, minimizing variation, and increasing quality and efficiency
PROSCI Change Management - Change management, enabling frameworks for managing the people side of change.
Project-management.info - Great informational site with articles on various aspects of project management to include, agile, and (earned value) calculators. From their site, I'd recommend a glance at their articles The 10 Knowledge areas and 49 Processes (PMBOK, 6th Edition) and the often-overlooked Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix; Uses & Examples.
Project Times - nice project management web page, full of resources, and other good stuff
Reddit Project Management - Reddit Project Management Message Board.
The Digital Project Manager - Great articles, nice community
You will notice, there are no references to project management tools (software products). In terms of project management processes, I like to stay technology neutral. However, an in-depth article, getting into the top project management tools - is in the works.
At PMO Forward, we educate our clients on the importance of best of breed project management and related processes. It is those very processes that lay the foundation for successful project, program, and portfolio management.
Good luck in your path-forward!
Comments