Project management has become an essential tool to achieve organizational goals and successfully deliver projects within the timeframe and budget. Businesses, however, need to be more focused on how they achieve their goals to stay successful in this changing competitive landscape; therefore, choosing the correct project management methodology becomes even more crucial. Get an overview of project management methodologies by joining a Project Quality Management Course offered at the British Academy for Training and Development.
A project management methodology is the systematic approach or framework to guide teams in planning, executing, monitoring, and delivering projects successfully. It consists of guidelines, principles, and tools to organize tasks, allocate resources, mitigate risks, and achieve project goals effectively.
Project management methodologies are customized based on the needs of individual projects, such as the scope, budget, timeline, and nature of the industry. These allow the teams to work in tandem while keeping a clear structure to ensure the success of the project.
The primary functions of project management methodologies are:
Breaking Projects: Breaking down work into smaller, manageable tasks
Organizing Resources: Giving time, workforce, and tools in an effective manner.
Managing Risks: Identifying and mitigating issues that can impact success.
Ensuring Accountability: Assigning responsibilities to team members for better collaboration.
There are several methods created for the different nature of projects. Let us dive into the top five project management methodologies and describe what each has to say uniquely.
Agile is one of the most widely used and flexible project management methodologies, especially in a dynamic and fast environment. Agile focuses on incremental delivery, continuous improvement, and collaboration among members and stakeholders.
Agile methodology divides projects into smaller iterative cycles called "sprints." These cycles usually last between 1 to 4 weeks. At the end of every sprint, teams review progress and adjust the next sprint according to that.
Early and continuous delivery of customer satisfaction
Change in pursuit of competitive advantage
Working solutions delivered through frequent iteration
Cross-functional teams with stakeholders
Software development projects
Projects that experience frequent changes or updates
Teams who work well in a collaborative environment
Faster delivery of the project
High flexibility
Improved communication and collaboration
Scrum: Focus on short iterations and daily meetings.
Kanban: Visual management of workflows through the use of task boards.
Extreme Programming (XP): Coding practices with a high degree of feedback.
The Waterfall method is a linear and sequential way of managing projects. It is one of the oldest and most traditional methods that are often used when the requirements are well-defined, and the scope of work is not likely to change.
In Waterfall, there must be completion of a project phase before the others start. For instance, its requirements, design, implementations, testing, and final deployment. The overall progress flows in one single direction, hence the title 'waterfall'.
Projects are done in a linear sequence.
Requirements are initially defined and fixed.
It delivers at the end of every phase.
Best to use for projects with small or no scope changes once defined.
Construction, production, and infrastructure.
Those projects with known processes.
This approach is easy to understand and manage due to its structured nature.
It is a well-defined project scope and deliverables.
There is an ease of scheduling and planning the resources
This kind of methodology is not fit for projects requiring flexibility
Late-stage changes are cost and time-intensive.
There is no room for receiving feedback other than at the end of the project
Scrum is one of the most widely implemented frameworks in project management that falls under Agile methodology, focusing on teamwork, accountability, and delivering value incrementally. It is designed around short, time-boxed iterations called "sprints," which deliver small chunks of a product or project.
There are three main roles in a Scrum team:
Product Owner: Defines and prioritizes project goals.
Scrum Master: Facilitates the Scrum process and removes obstacles.
Development Team: Executes activities and produces the increment of the product.
Sprint Planning: The team will decide on the objectives to be achieved in the sprint.
Daily Stand-ups: A short meeting regarding the progress and challenges.
Sprint Review: Displays the work done in the sprint.
Sprint Retrospective: Finds the possible areas of improvement for the next sprint.
Software development and tech projects.
Projects where there is continuous feedback and improvement.
Teams who function well in self-organized structures.
High adaptability to project needs that may change over time.
Standardized and client-involvement processes.
Rapid identification of obstacles
Requires a highly disciplined and collaborative team
Not suitable for a non-iterative product
Kanban is a project management method based on Agile, which uses visualization as the key to enhance operational effectiveness. It works with the Kanban board with various columns that serve each stage of the project.
It allows teams to handle work in the flow and make sure that team members are not overwhelmed, hence work is completed on time. The tasks in the system are pulled out according to the capacity of the team.
It visualizes the workflow
Limits work in progress; otherwise, it overloads
Improves workflow effectiveness by making incremental changes.
The continuous flow of projects
Handling customer service, operations, or maintenance
Teams work on projects with no certain end date
It provides transparency through the visualization of workflows.
Avoids task overload and burnout.
Encourages continuous improvement and efficiency.
It has to be constantly monitored to ensure smooth workflows.
Less structured than other methodologies.
5. Lean Project Management
Lean project management is an approach that aims to maximize value and eliminate waste. The idea behind this approach is borrowed from the manufacturing industry where products or projects are made efficiently by removing tasks or processes that do not add value.
Lean principles talk about areas of inefficiency and how to adopt certain practices that can help improve workflows. The bottom line is to deliver maximum value to the customer with minimum resources.
Eliminate waste (tasks, delays, and resources that don't add value).
Continuously improve workflows and processes.
Deliver value to the customer as quickly as possible.
Manufacturing and production projects.
Organizations focused on cost reduction and efficiency.
Projects requiring process optimization.
Cost-effective and resource-efficient.
Facilitates continuous process improvements.
Eliminates delays and non-value-added activities.
Requires a culture of continuous improvement.
Determining "waste" is subjective without clearly defined criteria.
The best project management methodology would depend on several factors:
Project Scope: Is the scope fixed, or will it change over time?
Project Timeline: Is the project time-sensitive, or is it open-ended?
Team Structure: Is the team a collaborative effort, or does it require strict guidance?
Industry Standards: Does your industry have specific methodologies?
Agile and Scrum are the best for industries like software development which moves fast. Waterfall best suits projects with a high level of requirements as it is applied in construction Kanban suits workflow teams. Lean works better with organizations that work more on process optimization.
Structured project management methodologies enable the planning and execution of a project to a successful delivery. Each has its unique principles, tools, and processes set up to respond to the various needs of the project. While Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, Kanban, and Lean are among the top methodologies, the right approach depends on project requirements, team dynamics, and organizational goals. Understanding the strengths and limitations of project management methodology by joining A training course in the project stages