I recently read the Harvard Business Review article How Project Managers Can Stay Relevant in Agile Organizations, and boy did I get fired up! This is a subject that I have been passionate about for quite a while and it is about time we address the 800-pound gorilla in the room; Project Management methodologies have been and continue to be based on a sequential process, predefined budgets, and arbitrary deadlines. They are a byproduct of a bygone era that have struggled to adapt to the customer and business needs of today. In other words, project management methodologies are a 20th century set of tools that are struggling to keep pace with the demands of the 21st century digital age. As Agile methodologies continue to gain traction across the enterprise (Agile is being adopted across non-development teams if you haven’t been paying attention) those with a product management background are in high demand. What is a traditional project manager to do to bolster their skillset and adapt to the Agile methodologies that leverage short, iterative cycles that keep the focus on providing value to their customers?
If you have talked to me recently, you know I’m on a mission to help traditional project managers, and the organizations they support, to learn the skills and best practices associated with product management and the benefits of Lean Agile. Project management has some shared skills and responsibilities with product management, but there are significant differences. Accounting for these differences, in the digital age, is critical for traditional project managers and will ultimately make PMs more valuable to their organizations as they adopt product management methodologies.
On June 10-11, 2021, I will be teaching Digital Polygon’s first of many SAFe Project Owner/Project Manager (POPM) certification courses. Join me in your journey to continuously grow your skills and add new product management tools to your tool belt.
By the end of this 2-day course:
- Gain an overview of the SAFe Product Owner and Product Manager (POPM) roles
- Understand the Product Owner and Product Manager roles as they related to Agile teams
- Connect Lean Agile principles and values to the SAFe POPM roles
- Understand the criticality of customer centricity and design thinking in product management
- Decompose epics into features and features into stories
- Refine features and stories, manage program and team backlogs, collaborate across Agile teams to estimate, forecast, and identify dependencies
- Advocate for and represent the customers’ needs during Program Increment (PI) Planning so that you can execute the PI and deliver continuous value to the customer
- Be eligible to take the SAFe POPM certification exam
This SAFe POPM course will be taught in a virtual workshop-style format. It is going to be informative and a ton of fun! Be prepared to discuss your experiences to keep the conversation lively. I look forward to seeing you there so be sure to register here to lock in our early bird special pricing.