Head First Agile

Chapter 8. Professional responsibility: Making good choices

It’s not enough to just know your stuff. You need to make good choices to be good at your job. Everyone who has the PMI-ACP credential agrees to follow the Project Management Institute Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, too. The Code helps you with ethical decisions that aren’t really covered in the body of knowledge—you may get a few questions about it on the PMI-ACP exam. Most of what you need to know is really straightforward, and with a little review, you’ll do well.

Doing the right thing

You’ll get some questions on the exam that present situations that you might run into while managing your projects and then ask you what to do. Usually, there’s a clear answer to these questions: it’s the one where you stick to your principles. Questions will make the decisions tougher by offering rewards for doing the wrong thing (like money for taking a project shortcut), or they will make the infraction seem really small (like photocopying a copyrighted article out of a magazine). If you stick to the principles in the PMI Code of Professional Conduct regardless of the consequences, you’ll always get the answers right.

The main ideas

In general, there are a few kinds of problems that the code of ethics prepares you to deal with.

1. Follow all laws and company policies.

2. Treat everybody fairly and respectfully.

3. Have respect ...