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Agile Education

Project Management Agile Education

Montreal Business Professor shares his Teaching Experiences with our Agile Marketing Education Community.

Agile Marketing and Project Management Education Content:

Agile Project Management Challenge

For the longest time, Project Management (PM) was not taught in the Quebec CEGEP (aka college) system. Many business programs still do not have PM included in their curriculum. It is not a surprise that students in our Marketing focused Business Administration DEC program usually struggle with the question: “Why do I need to study project management when all I want is to become a brand manager, not a PM professional?” Students fail to grasp that marketing professionals spend most of their time on managing projects.

Agile Education Benefits for Students

I was happy when I was asked to teach a PM class but as I quickly went through the curriculum, I realized that it was only the traditional PM view that was captured there. Concepts like Agile and Scrum were nowhere to be found, most likely because these PM techniques are believed to apply only in software development projects. I set a course to change this perception and teach my students about how Agile Marketing is more relevant than ever in today’s marketing profession given the increasing degree of unpredictability in the business practice.

Beneficial Agile Insights for Students:

I was delighted, therefore, when I met Thomas, a professional marketer but also a Scrum master and seasoned Agile Thinking practitioner. Inviting him as a guest speaker to my class has been one of the PM course highlights this fall (2020). Students got a lot of key insights not only from the theoretical concepts talked about but, especially, from the real business life examples that Thomas put forward. Students understood that Agile marketing and Agile PM are not nice-to-haves but rather key skills that complement traditional marketing and PM and that will help them tremendously down the road, in their future business careers.

About Sorin Voinea

Senior Business Executive who has lived and worked in several countries spanning 3 different continents (Europe, North America, and Asia). He is Business Professor at CEGEP – John Abbott College in Montreal, Quebec.