Waterfall And Agile
Are ‘waterfall’ and ‘agile’ project management techniques mutually exclusive? by Eve Mitchell, PwC
22 MARCH 2012 | www.pmtoday.co.uk
Change is a ubiquitous feature of modern life. Organisations across the globe are changing their working practices and business strategies to embrace the complexity and interconnected nature of a rapidly changing business environment and a shifting global economy. New delivery models often include suppliers, customers, vendors, partnerships and even competitors. Through these changed structures and practices organisations are becoming more able to address the pressures of rapid change, global competition and increasing complexity.
Projects need to be managed to be successful
The traditional ‘waterfall’ project management methodology assumes that a project is finite with a definite beginning and end; that projects need to be managed to be successful; and that the events affecting the project are predictable. In addition, with this traditional methodology, once a phase is finished it is thought that it will not be revisited. The strengths of this approach are that it provides clear steps for development and has a structure which allows the project to be broken into manageable stages for more accurate planning. However, its limitations have been experienced by many project managers - projects rarely follow the given sequential flow, and customers often find it difficult to state all of their requirements early in the project – often resulting in dreaded scope creep, or worse the project being seen as a failure as it hasn’t met all the customer’s requirements.
In contrast, ‘agile’ project management adopts the hypothesis that we don’t know everything at the start of a project, and even if we think we know, this can be subject to many changes. Agile projects are structured in order to speed up the rate of learning for the team and organisation – getting customer feedback early, identifying
22 MARCH 2012 | www.pmtoday.co.uk
Change is a ubiquitous feature of modern life. Organisations across the globe are changing their working practices and business strategies to embrace the complexity and interconnected nature of a rapidly changing business environment and a shifting global economy. New delivery models often include suppliers, customers, vendors, partnerships and even competitors. Through these changed structures and practices organisations are becoming more able to address the pressures of rapid change, global competition and increasing complexity.
Projects need to be managed to be successful
The traditional ‘waterfall’ project management methodology assumes that a project is finite with a definite beginning and end; that projects need to be managed to be successful; and that the events affecting the project are predictable. In addition, with this traditional methodology, once a phase is finished it is thought that it will not be revisited. The strengths of this approach are that it provides clear steps for development and has a structure which allows the project to be broken into manageable stages for more accurate planning. However, its limitations have been experienced by many project managers - projects rarely follow the given sequential flow, and customers often find it difficult to state all of their requirements early in the project – often resulting in dreaded scope creep, or worse the project being seen as a failure as it hasn’t met all the customer’s requirements.
In contrast, ‘agile’ project management adopts the hypothesis that we don’t know everything at the start of a project, and even if we think we know, this can be subject to many changes. Agile projects are structured in order to speed up the rate of learning for the team and organisation – getting customer feedback early, identifying