Imagine barely missing the Nor'easter up in Connecticut, only to land in sunny San Juan, Puerto Rico 24 hours later for the PMI Puerto Rico Simposio Anual. That was me last week. My time in Puerto Rico was short but I met some amazing people and had a great time. I spent one day offering a seminar on Agile Project Management and one day as a Simposium Speaker. There was a lot of interest around Agile and what it is (and what it is not). It was exciting to have the opportunity to interact with a completely different group of people, not focused on U.S. Government related work. Just to confirm, not everyone is Washington D.C. is, but I would argue a large group I spoke to last month at the Washington DC PM Symposium were. The people I spoke with this last week were entrepreneurs, company presidents, and managers... What I found as the common thread was not on keeping a schedule or staying on budget. It was about satisfying customers, maximizing ROI, and responding to constant change. Regardless of the language barrier on my side, they could understand what I was talking about, confirmed by the nodding heads and mouthed "sí."
I want to thank PMI Puerto Rico for being such amazing hosts. There is something very notable I want to point out about their symposium. Much like the symposium attendees, the organizers' primary concern appeared to not be keeping the symposium on a tight schedule. The focus was ensuring the people attending got as much value as they could provide in the time they had.
Originally published on LeadingAgile