Advanced Project Management and Scrum

For the last two years I’ve been the sole tutor on a module on the MSc IT Project Management with International Business. The module is called ‘Advanced Project Management’ – BAPM to it’s friends (of which there are very few).

The module tries to provide depth and breadth to students in Project Management techniques, whilst recognizing that this is a Masters level course, so it’s important to allow students the chance to stretch whatever intellectual muscles that they feel comfortable with, both inside the classroom and outside.

This is where I am fortunate when teaching Project Management – there’s lots of exercises and scenarios which can be used, and each week new case studies present themselves.

I focus on three project management techniques, spending 2/3 weeks on each one, and then allowing students to compare/contrast between the different techniques -

• PRINCE2. (Projects IN Controlled Environments – 2). This is my ‘bread and butter’ project management technique, used within the UK, most of Africa, Australia and also very big in India and surprisingly, France and Holland. This is clearly the subject I feel most comfortable about, and can discuss with little difficulty the pros and cons of the technique. This is of course the technique which I am certified in (and will be until 2012, having recently renewed my Practitioner certification).
• PMBOK. (Project Managers Body of Knowledge, also known by the name of the certifying body of Project Management Institute). This is huge in America, generally when people talk about certified project managemers, this is usually the technique which they are talking about.
• EU-PCM. (EU Project Cycle Management). I was first exposed to this technique when preparing a JISC bid for the university. It’s a good technique, and has some good international elements, but because it is not IT-specific, and is usually focused on large scale projects (measured in millions of Euros), students struggle with some of the concepts, and it’s frequently been used just to provide a ‘third place’ position marker compared to the other methods.

I reflected on this long and hard after the last presentation of BAPM. The simple answer would have been to carry on teaching the same old – but it’s clear that I’m doing students a disservice, encouraging them to learn about a technique which is clearly of very limited use.

Therefore, I have decided to ‘ditch’ EU-PCM, and instead develop my own (and my students) skills in Scrum. The library has purchased some Scrum books, and they’re on my desk now, and will be in my rucksack heading down to London tomorrow.

My first impressions are that it’s impressive, and I should be able to give a good flavour of the technique in three weeks (two weeks of theory, and a practical exercise). I like some of the terminology, and can think of some good analogy/metaphors, and am already starting to make my own comparisons between Scrum and PRINCE2 (the technique which I know most about)

Assuming I can get three groups of students, one task which I set them is to compare/contrast – see image below (which took seconds to produce and export using NeoOffice draw – so impressed!)

So group A will compare PRINCE2 and Scrum, Group B will compare Scrum and PMBOK etc.

So my job for the next few days when I’ve had enough marking will be to start to prepare a schedule for ‘new-BAPM’, and ensure that I can provide a good, coherent experience for students on the module.

No pressure then.

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