Project Methodologies And Processes In Project Management

What is a Methodology in Project Management?

1. A project management methodology could be regarded as a set of principles based on providing guidelines based on certain processes based on the management of a project. The choice of a proper methodology would be able to define the work and the proper mode of communication (Joslin & Müller, 2015). The methodologies within project management would play a crucial role for the accomplishment of goals and thus meeting with the objectives of the organisation.  

These methodologies greatly impact the making of projects based on the expectations of the entire team concerned within the project. The different forms of methodologies would be heterogeneous in composition and thus also be helpful for supporting the lifecycle of the project that would be helpful for achieving the goals of the project. The methodologies within project management would be helpful for enabling the organization for tackling with the projects in a comprehensive, systematic and in an integrated manner (Hornstein, 2015). Due to these kinds of reasons, the methodologies would be helpful for providing different kinds of benefits at a tactical, strategic and operational level. Based on the aspects of strategy, the methodologies would be able to provide confidence to different partners, customers and senior management. These would be helpful for management of larger projects and thus be able to deliver them in a profitable manner. At the level of tactics, the proper use of methodology would be helpful for off-site managers based on providing confidence within the validity of the assessments of status. It would help in the early recognition of problems and thus correcting them.

2. The two different types of methodologies are Agile and Waterfall Model. Based on the processes that are served in the industries, the different kinds of similarities and dissimilarities between these two methodologies are:

The Agile methodology separates the development of project lifecycle into sprints. In the Waterfall Model, the process of software development is primarily divided into several distinct phases (Serrador & Pinto, 2015). The Agile methodology follows an incremental approach while the Waterfall model would follow a sequential process of design. Though the Agile methodology is known for its flexibility, the Waterfall model would be structured so that this process would be rigid (Palmquist et al., 2013). Although, Agile methodology could be considered as a collection of different projects, the Waterfall model could be helpful for the completion of a single project. Agile methodology is defined as a flexible method that would allow for making of changes within the requirements of the development of the project. This would also be done even if the initial planning would also be completed. In the Waterfall model, all the development of the project such as designing, development and testing would be completed once within the model (Joslin & Müller, 2015). The Agile development could be defined as a process in which the different requirements would be expected for change and evolvement. In the Waterfall model, the different projects would have definite requirements and the changes would not be expected.

Different Methodologies and Processes in Project Management

3. The Agile methodology has sequential form of project phases, which are known as iterations (Abrahamsson et al., 2017). The Agile SDLC model could be defined as the combination of incremental and iterative process models based on focusing on the adaptability of processes and providing satisfaction of customers based on rapid delivery of working with the development of software. Based on the development of the project, it would be extremely vital for the consideration of the Agile model for the successful delivery of projects. Based on providing definition based on the requirements of the project, this form of methodology would be helpful for fulfilling the requirements of the project. The changes within the requirement stages of the project would happen at several times. Different kinds of changes could occur at various stages of the project. Different kinds of software development companies that are equipped with agile methodologies are very adaptable to these kinds of changes. With the impact of agile methodologies within the project, it would bring about enhancement for the participation of stakeholders. Different stakeholders would involve the customers and their various parts of influencing the various process and their consecutive outcomes.

In the Waterfall model, each of the phases within the project life cycle should be completed after the successful completion of the previous processes. The Waterfall model illustrates the processes based on software development within a linear sequential flow and hence the entire process is also known as Linear-Sequential Life Cycle Model (McHugh et al., 2013). The Waterfall model is regarded as the first form of SDLC model that would be widely used within Software Engineering in order to ensure the success of the project. In this kind of approach, the entire process of software development would be divided into several phases. The entire set of phases are cascaded with each other. In this form, the progress is seen to be flowing in a downward manner.

                                                               

                                                           (Fig 1: Impact of Waterfall Model on the Project Life Cycle)

                                                                                  (Source: Palmquist et al., 2013)

                                                   

                                                                   (Fig 2: Impact of Agile Methodology on Project Life Cycle)

                                                                                       (Source: Serrador & Pinto, 2015)

References

Abrahamsson, P., Salo, O., Ronkainen, J., & Warsta, J. (2017). Agile software development methods: Review and analysis. arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.08439.

Hornstein, H. A. (2015). The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), 291-298.

Joslin, R., & Müller, R. (2015). Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), 1377-1392.

McHugh, M., Cawley, O., McCaffery, F., Richardson, I., & Wang, X. (2013, May). An agile v-model for medical device software development to overcome the challenges with plan-driven software development lifecycles. In Proceedings of the 5th International Workshop on Software Engineering in Health Care (pp. 12-19). IEEE Press.

Palmquist, M. S., Lapham, M. A., Miller, S., Chick, T., & Ozkaya, I. (2013). Parallel worlds: Agile and waterfall differences and similarities (No. CMU/SEI-2013-TN-021). CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INST.

Serrador, P., & Pinto, J. K. (2015). Does Agile work?—A quantitative analysis of agile project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1040-1051.