Tuesday 15 July 2008
Prince2 and Bullshit Bingo
Have you ever been in a meeting with non-technie-but-trying-to-be type managers and listened to some of the drivel that spews forth from them in vast quantities with little regard for usefulness or even factual content??
I have, ad was surprised to learn that not only was I not alone but that some people play bullshit bingo whereby you listen out for certain middle manager buzz words that sound ~nice~ but mean absolutely nothing, you then tot up the number of buzz words and see if someone can beat it in another pointless meeting arranged to make the MM's (middle managers) feel needed/wanted and useful.
Well earlier I saw the course text for Prince2, what a pile of poo that is!! Seriously if bullshit bingo could be personified its name would be prince2. This just seems like an aimless collection of terms designed to hide the fact that the manager knows nothing of a technical nature whilst at the same time convince someone not fluent in prince2-eze that they know more than they do. No wonder the government has such a bad project delivery history if they are always trying to use this stuff, the people that know what they are doing are being prevented from communicating it by this all consuming language barrier created and perpetuated by Prince2.
The only thing that I can see with regards this tripe, is that it will ensure that particular groups of friends can muscle their way in ensuring that they have a job that is then perceived as being important enough to not fire them whilst at the same time ensuring that they never have to actually do any work.
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Richard, please do not slag off something you have no real experience of. 'Seeing the text' is not the same as doing the course. There's a lot more to it. Why not do a course, try PRINCE2 in practice, and then comment from true knowledge. I think you would be pleasantly surprised if you approached it with an open mind. By the way, I have played bullshit bingo for years!
ReplyDeleteI hope I didn't offend you, I was trying to poke a bit of fun at it in what I hoped was a light hearted manner. Your probably right, if I did do the course I would probably find some value to it :)
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeletejust found your blog, quite an interesting topic. Can we take this offline.
Warren
have you got enough bandwidth ;)
ReplyDeleteI am currently doing the course online because I thought it would be handy to have and to do to kill some time. Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that I have paid for it, I would have hurled myself off the ledge after the first few 'slides'. It is repetitive drivel that seems like a large waste of time. People I know have done this course and have never used it because their environment simply cannot afford the time or manpower to complete projects in this manner. Far too much pointless information. I should have known better. I remember sitting in meetings with Project Managers on many occasions who honestly clouded the fact that they had no technical knowledge or experience by spaffing nonsense like this. A tick in the box is all. I am glad I have the experience to back it up because as I write this, I have literally forgotten everything except the words, Project, Product and Process. Maybe the classroom course would have been better but it wouldn't change the nonsense written. Someone was paid a few quid so hats off to them for sucking everyone in with this. Bullshit Bingo indeed!
ReplyDeleteI just had a 5 day prince 2 training course. I had a 4 day Labour with my son.Labour was more enjoyable and well worth the effort.
ReplyDelete