How Organizations Can Use Multiple Project Certifications

How Organizations Can Use Multiple Project Certifications
Strategic Alignment Is Important for All Projects:

The most important project requirement is achieving the most business value for the project. Mature organizations often have very distinctive roles for their PMs, BAs and Agile project managers. Some organizations may want project managers to have two or three certifications in order to provide more flexibility of skills within their organizations.

Business Value - Benefits Realization: Failure to achieve business value equates to project failure. Agile projects, traditional projects, and business analysis projects must be aligned to the organization's goals and objectives in order to maximize the delivery of business value - providing benefits' realization to all stakeholders. If there are new organizational initiatives, they need to know whether their projects are still relevant. The PMP® Project Managers and the PMI-PBA people must involve the relevant, stakeholders and engage them in their projects - in order to achieve maximum business value. For Agile Projects, the BA is present until the backlog has been approved by the Product Owner, then the BA is no longer involved in the Agile project.

What are the Roles of the PMP, BA or Agile Project Managers?

The Role of the Business Analyst?


The PMI-PBA® type role for Needs Assessment: This kind of business analyst is not the fresh out of college BA that often manages smaller business analysis projects. The PMI-PBA Analyst has a strong background in Traditional Project Management (hopefully is a PMP PM). The BA may be asked to provide the organization with a Needs Assessment in order to identify and solve organizational problems or discover opportunities by collaborating with relevant or appropriate stakeholders. Projects are picked using best practices for options' analysis, once the problems and or opportunities are identified. Or the BA may be given a BA project to manage because another BA already performed the Needs Assessment and the project was assigned to her or him. At this stage if the product is not an IT development or implementation project, it is usually a traditional project This is how a project is chosen - whether for IT or a traditional project.

Now see the traditional project versus the Agile project:

BA's collaborative work within a traditional project:
The BA’s requirements management project runs parallel to the traditional project. The BA will elicit, identify, define and provide detailed project requirements along with specifications to the traditional PM (the Requirements Management Plan). However, the BA owns the requirements for the PMP PM's project. The PM and BA work collaboratively to achieve business value. So during the lifecycle of the traditional project, the BA’s responsibility is to trace the requirements backward and forwards throughout the project, communicating with the stakeholders, in order to ensure that all changes still align to the organization's current goal and objectives in order for all stakeholders to realize business value.

The BA and the Agile PM:
Once the Solution Project is identified, the BA provides the project requirements that are already aligned to the strategic goals and objectives, and then works with the Agile PM until the backlog has been approved. The BA leaves the Agile project once the backlog has been established. The product owner then owns the backlog. Agile deliverables must align to the business value for maximum value delivery.

2. The PMP Project Manager


The PMP Project Manager is assigned a project and must do a project assessment including supporting the BA’s evaluation (business case for the project – if the organization is not mature, the PMP Project Manager may have to perform both the role of the PM and the role of the BA.) Then the PM identifies the relevant stakeholders that he or she will be collaborating with throughout the project, (including the Project Sponsor). Together with the relevant stakeholders, the PM perform benefits analysis to ensure that maximum business value is delivered. Engaging and collaborating with relevant stakeholders, the PMP initiates, plans, executes according to the plan, monitors and controls based on the plan, and closes the project after evaluating the achievement of business value. (Note: If there is no BA present at the beginning, the PMP PM will also evaluate the business case for the project, create the requirements management plan and perform requirements traceability.) In the final stages of closing the project, the BA and or the PM will facilitate the benefits’ evaluation. If the requirements don’t align to the business goals and objectives, business value is not achieved. Successful projects are managed to maximize value delivery. No Business Value equals failure. The PMP® Project Manager needs to be able to gain the support of relevant stakeholders, and keep them engaged throughout the project.

3. The PMI-ACP® Agile PM


The BA provides the requirements for the solution to the Agile PM, and the BA leaves after the backlog has been completed. The Agile team is focused on Maximizing Value Delivery. In Agile Projects, it is important that all of agile methodologies are available to the team. In Agile projects, the methodology can vary by project and or iteration. PMI-Agile project management teaches all agile methodologies.

PMP-PMI-PBA-PMI-ACP Flexibility
If someone has experience and certification in PMP, PMI-PBA and PMI-ACP, then resource flexibility within the organization benefits both the employee and the employer. The employer doesn't need to add a resource and the project manager doesn't need to look for another job.

All PMP Options in DC, WA classrooms or Live Online
Refreshers Options for PMP Training
CAPM Certification
All PMI-PBA Certification Options in DC or WA classrooms or Live Online
PMI-ACP Certification with Exam Prep - in classrooms in DC or WA Classroom or Live
PgMP Certification - Onsite or Live Video Conference.

PMP, CAPM, PMI-ACP, PMI-PBA PgMP, PfMP, PMI-RMP, PMI-SP, PMBOK, PMI are the registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.