Aspiring DM

I am an aspiring DM.

No, not Dungeon Master or Danger-Mouse, I want to be a Delivery Manager.

It all started a couple of years ago when talking to my best friend, let’s call him Carlos* (therein lies another story), who had many years of experience in the industry. ‘You’d be good at this’ he suggested, ‘why don’t you give it a go?’ and so it began. Life, as always, got in the way for 18 months until I could finally look into this brave new world properly.

Why would I be good at this? I’ve no background or experience in tech but.. I am good with people. Listening, empathising, enabling, guiding, to name a few traits or so I’ve been told (though I would never suggest that myself). I looked at what the role would entail and had to agree with him, it certainly was something I’d like to have a crack at. The idea of servant leadership was interesting, I love getting behind people helping them however I can, taking some of the burden and flak and nurturing confidence.

But, where to start…?

I’d already changed careers ten years ago, going from 16 years as a chef into my current role of 10 years as a project co-ordinator. And now, change again? It all seemed quite daunting at first, a completely new discipline, new terminology, new work approach and new people. Many, many, varied rabbit holes to get lost down and, to be honest, I felt a bit directionless. Agile, Lean, Kanban, Scrum, I’d heard the words but they meant nothing to me. What I needed was a focused and efficient path of learning and a way to start to put everything into context.

Cut to exterior, Hankey Place Gardens, London, SE1, early morning.

Bald middle aged man sits on park bench. He is drinking tea from a thermos and has just finished eating a bacon roll, saving a bit of bread and occasionally throwing a piece to a grateful Robin that darts in and out of a rosebush. He makes a phone call to Carlos (abridged version follows).

Me – ‘Hello mate, so about this delivery manager stuff, I’ve been looking into it and would feel a lot better knowing a good direction to focus on. Any courses or qualifications that would help?’

C – ‘Hello, yes, good idea. You should reconnect with so-and-so* and see what they think’

Me – ‘Great, Thank you!’

I had first spoken with so-and-so last year who was full of the most helpful advice, they had also just had a book published on delivery management, great book by the way and an Amazon bestseller no less, this was a good plan.

They very kindly replied to my question of ‘Help, where should I begin?’ suggesting that PSM I is a solid place to start. PSM I / PSM II and PSK should provide an excellent foundation for working with teams. Furthermore if I could complement that with shadowing an active Scrum Master / Delivery Manager somewhere I should be able to get some deep learning that would set me up really well!

Brilliant, with a little help I now knew where to start, PSM I it was.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of innocent parties involved as they probably wouldn’t want to be associated with me anyway.