And so concludes my second day at the PMI North American Congress. Again, it was an awesome day.
I went to 4 different Agile centric sessions. Titles included
Why Failing Early in Agile is a Good Thing!
An Agile Simulation in 75 Minutes
Agile PM Mastery in 60 Minutes, Guaranteed!
Beyond Backlog and Burndowns: Complementing "Agile" methods with EVM for Improved Project Performance.
I really enjoyed the Agile Simulation, presented by Brian Bozzuto, MBA, PMP, CSP and Giora Morein, PMP, CSM, CSP, CST. Check them out at BigVisible Agile Training. Yes, we who work in this industry enjoy having a lot of letters after our names. But seriously, these guys earned every letter. Though a few people struggled with the simulation, most got it. I saw several light bulb moments from session attendees. It's exciting when someone looks you right in the eye and says "I think I get it!"
Later, I had lunch with Michele Sliger and Lisamarie Babik. I had such a blast sitting with these two and just enjoying myself. Sure, I was enjoying the Congress but this was fun!
I wanted to make a special note about my final session of the day. It was about Agile and EVM. The material was presented by a PhD and a colleague who had working with EVM for over 20 years. The response to their presentation was mixed at best. For those in the audience with an Agile background, it was a challenging topic to cover. But, it was still interesting. To counter that, several with EVM backgrounds were acting like 3-year-olds and that we were trying to steel their teddy bears away. Some people got up and left the session, the guy next to me chewed on his finger nails until he fell asleep, and some in the audience just wanted the microphone to argue about the 32 points of EVM criteria. But let's move on.
After the sessions had ended for the day, I had the honor and privilege to meet a few people that I've known through blogs and the Twittersphere.
I hung out with Brian Bozzuto and Bob Tarne. I then met Elizabeth Harrin, resulting in remarks about the coffee at the PMI Congress. Forgive me Elizabeth, I was in the moment. I then I went off to have drinks with Bas De Baar, Josh Nankivel, and Cornelius Fichtner.
So, I'm off to bed. Day 3 will be a long one.