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A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) - Sixth Edition is significantly different from the prior Fifth Edition in that it is published and bundled together with the Agile Practice Guide. The inclusion of this new practice guide has created some confusion around what a student should study to prepare for the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam.
Contents
First of all, what is the Agile Practice Guide? Much like the PMBOK Guide, the Agile Practice Guide was developed to provide project management-related guidance. However, whereas the PMBOK Guide provides broad guidance on effective project management, the content of the Agile Practice Guide focuses on agile practices, which apply to those adopting an agile approach to the planning and execution of projects. The Agile Practice Guide was developed through a collaboration between the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Agile Alliance in order to connect and relate waterfall and agile approaches.
Since 2012, when PMI first introduced the PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) exam, Agile has continued to grow in usage and acceptance. PMI even recognizes the PMI-ACP as its fastest-growing certification. Agile encompasses several different methods such as Kanban, Lean, Scrum, extreme programming (XP), and test-driven development, which means the use of agile approaches can span many industries. The PMI-ACP Exam tests for in-depth knowledge of agile practices, tools and techniques.
Although Agile is growing, you should not expect to see too many Agile questions on the PMP exam at this time. Reading the Agile Practice Guide once should be enough to get you through the agile questions that may appear on the PMP exam. At this point, there is no reason to take a deep dive into it to pass the PMP exam. Simona Fallavollita, Product Manager for PMI, had the following to say when asked if those who are preparing for the PMP exam also need to read the Agile Practice Guide:
You are leading a project to develop a new web application. Together with your project team you reprioritize the product backlog, determine velocity for the past iterations, and adapt your work plans accordingly. Additionally, you facilitate retrospectives every two weeks. Which of the following processes describes the work you are performing?
You are part of a cross-functional organizational development team, piloting an adaptive approach to project management in an organization that has traditionally used a predictive approach. You realize that you have to tailor the template of the schedule management plan. Which of the following components of the template are you likely to tailor the most?
One thing to keep in mind, however, is that the PMP exam regularly changes along with the ever-changing best practices of project management. The above recommendation from PMI regarding the inclusion of Agile in the PMP exam is in alignment with the current PMP Examination Content Outline. It is expected that there will be a new outline in late 2019 or early 2020. Therefore, if that is when you are planning on taking the PMP exam, keep a lookout for a revised Exam Content Outline.
When preparing for your PMP exam, consider the Exam Content Outline to be your roadmap to what you need to know and fully understand to pass the exam. As you dig into the outline, it will become evident that the PMP exam is not solely based on the PMBOK Guide; it is just one of several resources an aspiring PMP will need to study to be best prepared for the exam.
PMI included the Agile Practice Guide with the PMBOK Guide to provide more comprehensive information to support a broader landscape of project delivery and practices. The Agile Practice Guide should be considered a complement to the PMBOK Guide. In other words, they are meant to work hand in hand as more and more businesses move away from a strictly predictive model to apply agile or some hybrid approach to their projects.
Agile can be tricky for everyone, especially UX. We often have to adapt how we work and help others understand how we fit and contribute. The goal of this study guide is to provide tangible tools and tips to make the adaptation process clear and easy.
For more in-depth understanding on how UX fits into Lean and Agile ways of working and tangible practices for navigating challenges, take our full-day course, Lean UX & Agile at the UX Conference. Or, explore our research report, Effective Agile UX Product Development.
The Agile methodology is a project management approach that involves breaking the project into phases and emphasizes continuous collaboration and improvement. Teams follow a cycle of planning, executing, and evaluating.
In scrum, a product is built in a series of fixed-length iterations called sprints, giving agile teams a framework for shipping software on a regular cadence. Learn how the scrum methodology impacts traditional project management.
Kanban is a popular agile framework that requires real-time communication of team's capacity and full transparency of work. Learn how the kanban methodology for agile software development can benefit for your team.
Your guide to being a product manager or product owner for an agile team. Learn about developing roadmaps, prioritizing features, building product requirements documents, and using product analytics to make decisions.
Whereas the traditional "waterfall" approach has one discipline contribute to the project, then "throw it over the wall" to the next contributor, agile calls for collaborative cross-functional teams. Open communication, collaboration, adaptation, and trust amongst team members are at the heart of agile. Although the project lead or product owner typically prioritizes the work to be delivered, the team takes the lead on deciding how the work will get done, self-organizing around granular tasks and assignments.
Agile isn't defined by a set of ceremonies or specific development techniques. Rather, agile is a group of methodologies that demonstrate a commitment to tight feedback cycles and continuous improvement.
Teams choose agile so they can respond to changes in the marketplace or feedback from customers quickly without derailing a year's worth of plans. "Just enough" planning and shipping in small, frequent increments lets your team gather feedback on each change and integrate it into future plans at minimal cost.
An agile team unites under a shared vision, then brings it to life the way they know is best. Each team sets their own standards for quality, usability, and completeness. Their "definition of done" then informs how fast they'll churn the work out. Although it can be scary at first, company leaders find that when they put their trust in an agile team, that team feels a greater sense of ownership and rises to meet (or exceed) management's expectations.
The publication of the Agile Manifesto in 2001 marks the birth of agile as a methodology. Since then, many agile frameworks have emerged such as scrum, kanban, lean, and Extreme Programming (XP). Each embodies the core principles of frequent iteration, continuous learning, and high quality in its own way. Scrum and XP are favored by software development teams, while kanban is a darling among service-oriented teams like IT or human resources.
Today, many agile teams combine practices from a few different frameworks, spiced up with practices unique to the team. Some teams adopt some agile rituals (like regular stand-ups, retros, backlogs, etc.), while others created a new agile practice (agile marketing teams who adhere to the Agile Marketing Manifesto).
The agile teams of tomorrow will value their own effectiveness over adherence to doctrine. Openness, trust, and autonomy are emerging as the cultural currency for companies who want to attract the best people and get the most out of them. Such companies are already proving that practices can vary across teams, as long as they're guided by the right principles.
Although many of our teams organize their work in sprints, estimate in story points, and prioritize their backlogs, we're not die-hard practitioners of scrum. Or kanban. Or any other trademarked methodology. Instead, we give each team the autonomy to cherry-pick the practices that will make them most effective. And we encourage you to take a similar approach.
For example, if you're on a queue-oriented team like IT, kanban provides a solid foundation for your agile practice. But nothing should stop you from sprinkling in a few scrum practices like demo sessions with stakeholders or regular retrospectives.
The key to doing agile right is embracing a mindset of continuous improvement. Experiment with different practices and have open, honest discussions about them with your team. Keep the ones that work, and throw out the ones that don't.
Because we believe each team must forge their own path to agility, you won't find highly prescriptive information on this site. What you will find, however, is a no-nonsense guide to working iteratively, delivering value to your customers, and embracing continuous improvement. Read it, discuss it with your team, and make the changes that make sense to you.
You'll also find tutorials on pairing these practices with Jira, our project management tool for high-performing teams. Want to set up a kanban board? Get insights from your team's velocity report? It's all here in the tutorials.
The drive within life sciences to improve patient safety and product quality, and provide value to society, while reducing costs requires constant and effective innovation. However, because the pharmaceutical industry operates in a highly regulated sector, some practitioners may apply unthinking, prescriptive, and rigid approaches that are not commensurate to the needs of the process, the nature of the system, and the real risk to the product and the patient.
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