PRINCE2 vs. PMI's PMBoK

I've heard quite a few comments recently about the relative merits of PRINCE2 [1] vs. the PMI's [2] PMBoK [3] (Project Management Body of Knowledge). Today I came across this presentation [4] which has a few useful comparative comments. In the past I've also noted this short paper comparing PRINCE2 and PMBok [5].

The paper's [5] comments about the role of a Project Manager are raise a striking point. A PMBoK style Project Manager is a dramatically different role from a PRINCE2 Project Manager. Indeed the term Project Manager is probably far too loose a term to mean a great deal!

[1] http://www.ogc.gov.uk/prince/
[2] http://www.pmi.org/
[3] http://web.syr.edu/~chtejase/PMBOK_2000.pdf
[4] http://www.pmiwestchester.org/downloads/Prince2PMBOK.pdf
[5] http://www.pmforum.org/library/papers/Prince2vsGuide3.htm

ITNow: XP, Agile or set in stone?

I've just received the latest edition of the British Computer Society's Journal ITNow (formerly called The Computer Bulletin). I confess that I rarely read it, but this month had an article on XP which caught my attention, so I thought I'd take a look. Unfortunately it was a bit of a disappointment, as was another article under the category "the future of computing".

To XP or not to XP?
The article on XP (eXtreme Programming) is primarily a disappointment because it is supposed to present two opposing views, but the first view is a fairly loosely written advocation of the use of CM (Configuration Management) with Agile methods, whilst the counterpoint view is a very robust criticism of XP (far too robust in my opinion). To someone unfamiliar with this area it would be easily to miss the fact that XP is only one Agile method and it would be a surprise to then discover that the author of the counterpoint—Matt Stephens—is actually an agile practitioner who's views may well coincide with the author of the first view.

I then turned over a few pages to find an article entitled…

A new approach to business computing

I'm sure I'm probably missing something here, but this article seemed like something that might have been better entitled "An historical look at computing". It seems to present a long explanation of how networked computing and increased computing power enable fully automated real-time processes. It then goes on to suggest a single iteration waterfall approach to software development, e.g. to quote: "design, engineering spec., build, operate". Somewhere down the line he seems to have completely failed to recognise the existence of "change" and the fundamental fact that "design, build, test, crash, fix, test, crash…" is actually a very suitable model for software development (where a crash is a very fast and low risk operation) compared with airplane design where a crash is a massive cost in time and money.

PRINCE2 Open Exam booking workaround

The day after posting this, APM Group fixed their site. Thank you.

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Attempting to formalise my PRINCE2 knowledge has been frustrated by the fact that the Open Examinations in the UK conducted by APM Group are booked through a web site booking form which which uses some outdated JavaScript to display available booking slots. From my testing this appears to only work on Internet Explorer on a PC, though Internet Explorer on the Mac will display the options even if you can't book them!

I'll see if I can persuade them to fix this, but in the meantime, if you are a user of Firefox or Safari you can circumvent their JavaScript museum by typing the following line (as one long line) into the location bar and hitting Return:

javascript:var str=document.f.T1.value; document.getElementById("Topic").innerHTML=str; document.getElementById("Topic").style.visibility = "visible"; alert("Done!");

Replace "T1" (for Milton Keynes) in the above with "T2" for Winsford or "T3" for York.

Once the dates are displayed you can proceed as normal.

Getting Things Done

Perhaps I live in the dark ages, but somewhere down the line I’ve missed the “Getting Things Done” (GTD) movement and it appears with recent reading that I’m missing out, so I feel overwhelmingly obliged to read “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity” by David Allen.

The final straw that lead me to this conclusion was reading one of today’s “Cutting Through” entries, “Prince 2, product and Getting Things Done”, which was about the 10th reference I’ve read to GTD in the last month.