As promised here the interview Dave Prior gave to our Richard Joerges.

It is about project management in general, agile methods like Scrum and XP, Twitter and of course project management on Mac OS X.

MacPM: What are the benefits of scrum in your opinion?

Dave Prior: Scrum offers a great alternative to traditional “waterfall” approach. I find it works best on projects that are high risk, troubled or have really tough (impossible) deadlines. It is a great way to get the client fully engaged and build a quick history of success that leads to deeper trust. At first glance it seems fairly basic and simple, but it does require a lot of discipline. Lately I’ve been blending Scrum and the PMBOK a lot. I use Scrum with the development team so that they can move quickly and stick to the business of coding and I take the output of the Scrum process and port the results into PMBOK oriented reporting formats I can use for more traditional minded senior executives.

MacPM: Your opinion about Extreme Programming (XP)?

Dave Prior: Scrum and XP can be used very well together. I tend to incorporate certain aspects of XP into Scrum and it is a big help. One thing I have learned about both is that you have to maintain discipline with them in order to see the results. I would also recommend that anyone implementing them for the first time hire in someone who has experience in implementing and running work using those approaches. I’ve seen both get totally botched by people who read half a book and tried to do half of what they read and then call it Agile.

MacPM: What is your advice for someone who wants to become a project manager?

Dave Prior: Seek professional help immediately. (joke) I don’t think this is a profession that people aspire to. No one grows up wanting to be a PM. This is a profession that finds the people who are, for one reason or another, prone to this type of work. I love what I do, and I think I am reasonably good at it, but it is not something I had any intention of becoming.

The one thing I always tell people to do if they are getting into PM is to read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. That book has taught me more about project management and dealing with people than anything else I’ve studied. I also think that people who have worked in restaurants, or any gig where they had to live on their tips, make the best PMs. They understand how to handle the stress and understand that customer service is the most critical thing about the job.

MacPM: I saw, you are using Twitter. Is Twitter (and other social media applications) relevant for your project management tasks or in other words: Should PMs use those tools?

Dave Prior: Great Question! Yes, I have been pushing for using Twitter more on projects. It is a great communication tool and available on just about every device imaginable. I think blogging is another great way to track status on projects too. I have also become a big fan of creating Wiki’s in place of traditional requirements docs because you can pass the ownership on to the client who can then keep it up to date. (I know we are supposed to update the requirements docs, but people rarely do.)

One last plug for the new tech in PM… I use Skype and Audio Hijack to record every standup meeting, which I immediately post to a server in case anyone misses that day. I’ve also taken to using a Livescribe pen to keep notes and record the meetings, just in case someone can’t remember saying something, I can simply tap the pen to my notes and let them hear the recording of what they said while I took that note. And for managing my personal workload… Things and my iPhone. I am now hyper aware of exactly how much I am not able to get done each and every day! 😉

MacPM: As a fan of Merlin you are probably a mac user. Why do you prefer Macs over Windows?

Dave Prior: When I got started in PM I was a Windows user. Then, during the .com boom I took a gig at an all Mac company. I begged them for a Windows machine, but was denied. After about a week, I was sold. The ease and elegance with how everything is laid out and designed to work is just far simpler than windows. Plus, with Mac OS X, I still have the chance to open a terminal and use some of what I picked up using Linux. It’s just simpler and easier. I feel like the majority of the software has been designed for a user to get things done, as opposed to just packing it with whatever the technology is capable of. Plus, the people I run across who use Macs tend to be more creatively minded and I really like that.

MacPM: Do you experience any problems with your corporate customers regarding your Mac? (compatibility etc)

Dave Prior: Well, I am a PM at a consulting company and my main job is to manage projects integrating Windows products. I think the biggest issue tends to stem from lack of knowledge about Mac technology or a “windows-only” mindset. It always seems like an odd argument to me 1) because Microsoft does not make hardware and 2) in this day and age, anyone in IT should be able to use whatever tools they are most comfortable with to get the job done as best and as quickly as they can. But, yes – the windows folks tend to shy away from the Mac. Of course, one thing you can count on, is that if you walk into a windows environment with a Mac, all the pro windows folks will spend a lot of time talking about all the reasons they have for not having one… me thinks they do protest too much! 😉

MacPM: Which Mac do you own and when did you bought your first Mac?

Dave Prior: When I was in grade school I learned basic on an Apple Plus, and had an Apple IIC in high school until I got an F in programming when the teacher found out I was the one writing the assignments for half the class so I could have beer money on the weekends. After college I worked at Nickelodeon for awhile and had a really hard time when they took my Duo away. At the .com mentioned above, the owner gave everyone an Apple Wallstreet laptop – which I loved. I’ve been through many Macs since then and am currently using the unibody MacBook Pro 2.8 GHz – it rocks like Hagar!

If you want to read more from Dave Prior, Dave has a blog called the drunken pm, which is mirrored here as well.  He is also trying to break his Facebook habit by posting to twitter instead.