Thoughts on “HERMES 2022 Advanced”

I have recently passed the ‘HERMES 2022 Advanced’ exam and a question remained in my mind: What will it be like to lead a project where the project leader cannot interfere either in the management of the development team or in the management of future users, tasks which are in HERMES 2022 intended for the user representative (“Anwendervertreter”, AVer)?

The interaction between project manager (PL) and AVer thus becomes crucial to the success of the project: it is like driving a car in two, if they do not steer, accelerate or brake in unison, there is a big risk of crashing, which in the context of a project is tantamount to creating pure chaos.

Therefore, the choice of the PL and AVer pairing must be made by management specifically and wisely. If the two people do not know each other or have never worked together before, a period of observation by the mandate of the project (sponsor) is a must.

The argument used in HERMES 2022 to justify this is that so the PL can also be external and does not have to know the business. I have been a project manager for many years, and it has never been a problem not to know the customer’s business at the beginning. On the contrary, I consider this aspect to be both an advantage and a motivation: an advantage because you do not start from assumptions or preconceptions that may later turn out to be wrong; a motivation because it is nice to discover new businesses, to inform oneself by reading, researching, and asking questions about new “worlds”.

Finally, I wonder without knowing anything about the project business, is it possible to be in charge of it?