Project Management Methodologies – Which One Should I Choose?

What is Project Management?

Project management centers around designing and regulating the project and its resources. This includes identifying and managing the life cycle to be used, implementing it in a user-centered construction process, building a project team, and effectively directing the team at all stages until the project is completed.

What is the Project Management Methodology?

The project management approach is a set of guiding policies and procedures for project management. The method you choose defines how you work and how you communicate.

Which method you choose will depend on your team, project type, and project scope. Selecting the right Project Management Method (PMM) is one of the major decisions to be taken.

How useful is Managing Projects?

Project Management can seem intimidating as it necessitates an in-depth understanding and knowledge of project planning, planning, reporting, tracking, and the importance of project management.

Project management helps to plan and organize a project by a group of members who collaborate within the team and share skills and knowledge during project implementation. Project management helps with actual project planning.

Using good project management can help you see how you are using resources to benefit a project. Project management is essential to identify, manage, and control the quality of any submissions.

Types of Project Management Methodologies:

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), a methodology is a series of practices, strategies, procedures, and rules applied by those who work in particular domains.

1. Waterfall Methodology

The waterfall approach is a traditional method of project management wherein the tasks and phases are completed in a straightforward, sequential manner, and each phase of the project is to be completed before the next one starts.

The waterfall project management phases typically follow the following sequence:

• Requirements
• Analysis
• Design
• Construction
• Testing
• Shipping and Repair

Progress flows seemingly like a real waterfall. And like a real waterfall, this can be very dangerous. Since everything is mapped in the beginning, there is a lot of error if the expectations do not match the reality.

When to apply Waterfall Methodology?

• If the ultimate goal of your project is well defined, and wouldn’t change.
• Participants know exactly what they want.
• If the concerned project is static and predictable.
• If you work in a well-balanced industry that requires extensive project follow-up or documentation.

Are there any limitations to Waterfall Methodology?

• High risk: This method is highly solid in that you will need to begin from the very first step in case of an error or edit. This extremely increases the risk of project failure.
• Survival of the fittest: The entire Waterfall system relies heavily on understanding and analyzing your needs effectively. If you fail to do that – or if the needs change – you have to start over. Its sturdiness makes it a weak choice for long and complex projects.

2. Agile Approach

The agile project management approach emerged from increasing dissatisfaction with the direct approach to traditional project management methods.

With the shortcomings of the earlier projects, the focus changed to repetitive models that enabled teams to revise their projects as needed during the process rather than waiting until the end to review and amend.

The concept of agile project management has continued to evoke several frameworks and alternatives, such as scrum, kanban, and lean. The key principles of agile project management methods are:

• It’s interactive.
• It’s fast.
• Open data-driven changes.

Agile project management methods typically consist of short phases of work with systematic testing, re-evaluation, and flexibility.

When to apply Agile Methodology?

• Your project is bound to change.
• You are not sure at first what the solution will look like.
• You need to work faster, and it is more important that you see faster progress than full results.
• Your stakeholders or client need (or want) to be involved at all stages.
• You may need to bring new people to the project in between and make them move faster.

Are there any limitations to Agile Methodology?

• Your project is bound to change.
• You do not have a complete picture of all the requirements before you start.
• You need to do continuous testing or adapt to the response during the process.

3. Scrum Methodology

A scrum is an agile project management method. You can think of it as a framework rather than a way to manage the project itself.

With Scrum, the work is divided into short cycles known as “sprints”, which usually last about 1-2 weeks. Work is taken on the backlog.

The small groups are led by the Scrum Master during the sprint period, after which they review their performance in “sprint retrospective” and make any necessary changes before starting the next sprint.

When to apply Scrum Methodology?

• Scrum “sprints”: The Scrum method focuses mainly on 30-day “resources”. This is where the project team divides the wish lists for end-to-end goals into smaller clusters and then works on 30-day intervals and daily standing meetings. This makes it trouble-free to control large and complex projects.
• Fast forward: The “sprint” method with its 30-day limit and daily standing meetings improve duplication and development.
• Team focus: As the project team is expected to self-regulate, Scrum teams are visible in the project. It also means that project leaders can set their priorities based on their knowledge of their skills.

Are there any limitations to Scrum Methodology?

The absence of a fixed deadline and project manager for planning and budgeting can make Scrum a big failure.

The project team controls itself and they need to be highly disciplined and have to move forward or and there is a possibility of poor performance.

The focus of the project team means that any resource that leaves the team in the middle will greatly affect overall results. This method is also not flexible enough for large groups.

4. Kanban Methodology

Kanban is another way under the management of an agile project.
Coming from the manufacturing industry, the word “kanban” has evolved to reflect the framework in which the functions are represented by the eyes as they proceed through the columns on the kanban board. The function is subtracted from the aforementioned setback as the group is dynamic and moves through columns on the board, each column representing a phase of the process.

Kanban is good at giving everyone a clear idea of what each job stands for. When used as part of an agile project management approach, it is also common to use continuous service (WIP) restrictions. Performance restrictions continue to limit the number of tasks played at any one time, which means you can have a certain number of tasks in each column (or the general board). It helps increase work productivity by giving attention to each task.

When to apply Kanban Methodology?

• You want a tangible representation of the progress of your project.
• You want a glance-oriented view.
• You want to encourage the use of WIP restrictions so that your team stays focused.
• You choose to work on a continuous “pull” basis.

5. Scrumban Methodology

Scrumban is formed from the fusion between Scrum and Kanban Methodologies.

And using the function at continuous ends (from kanban) during your sprint cycle (from scrum), you can maintain a continuous flow while installing project planning, reviewing, and looking back when needed.

Significant fit for fast-moving and round-the-clock projects that don’t have to be challenged by the limitations of Scrum and Kanban. The methodology is highly flexible and can be applied for both short-term and long-term projects.

When to apply Scrumban Methodology?

• If you want to have the best of both worlds (Scrum and Kanban)

6. Extreme Programming (XP) Methodology

The eXtreme Programming (XP) approach is another agile project management approach devised for software development.

Emphasizes team spirit and collaboration for all managers, customers, developers, and self-organizing teams. It has elucidated rules for groups to follow, based on its five values: simplicity, communication (face-to-face), feedback, respect, and courage.

When to apply EXtreme Programming Methodology?

• If you wish to promote collaboration and cooperation.
• If your team is small and cohesive.

7. Adaptive Project Framework (APF)

Adaptive project management framework (APF), also referred to as Adaptive Project Management (APM), is a version of the agile project management formulated for flexibility and variability.

When to apply APF Methodology?

• You want a set of goals that will help you cut fat and increase your mobility.
• You are always trying to improve and increase customer value.
• You want to ultimately reduce costs.

8. Critical Path Method (CPM)

A critical approach (also known as a critical approach) is a way of identifying and organizing all the critical activities that make up your project, and their dependencies.

In this method, you can identify all the important tasks you need to do to achieve your project goal. Estimate how long each task will take. Use all that information to plan the “critical approach” you will need to take to get the project done as quickly as possible without losing important steps.

When to apply CPM Methodology?

• Your project is big and complex.
• Your project is highly dependent.
• Looking for a visual way to mark a sequence of tasks.

Are there any limitations to CPM Methodology?

• Plans should be made to implement any project. If you do not have real-world knowledge of planning, you will calculate the wrong time for each task.
• As with Waterfall, CPM is already difficult. You need to plan everything first. If there is a change, it deactivates the entire system. This makes this approach unsuitable for projects with flexible needs.

9. Six Sigma Methodology

Six Sigma is a project management system that was first introduced by engineers at Motorola in 1986. It aims to improve quality by reducing the number of errors in the process by identifying inactive ones and removing them from the process. It uses quality management methods, which are mostly documented and mathematical, as well as the expertise of experts in these methods.

There are two major Six Sigma methods performed by Six Sigma Green Belts, and Six Sigma Black Belts and supervised by Six Sigma Master Black Belts. They are DMAICs used to improve business processes, and DMADV designed to create new processes, products, or services.

When to apply Six Sigma Methodology?

Big companies and organizations looking to improve quality and efficiency in a data-driven way.

10. PMI / PMBOK

PMI represents the Project Management Institute which is a non-profit membership organization, a project management certificate, and a quality organization. Through PMI, comes the PMBOK which is not a real but a guide that defines a set of standards that reflect project management.

PMBOK represents the Project Management Body of Knowledge and is a set of common terms and guidelines for project management. It says five process teams have excelled in almost every project

When to apply PMBOK Methodology?

Because it is a more direct guide than the actual project management method, you cannot use PMI / PMBOK for a project. However, it can be used when you want to rate the best practices for your project.

Wrapping Up
Project management methodologies help in the effective and efficient delivery of valuable projects. It may seem a laborious task but to appropriately carry out worthy projects necessitates competent professionals who are well aware of the nitty-gritty details of project management.

Are you on board to set your foot on this career path? If you are, then join SKILLOGIC Project Management Courses which would help enhance your skills and draw you closer to being a capable candidate for this lucrative career. SKILLOGIC provides PMP Training and PRINCE2 Certification Training Courses.