The right methodology matters
There are many different ways to run projects. Selecting the management style that most suits your organization should be based on the complexity of the project and the mindset of your people.
Agile methodologies are known for accelerating product delivery, enhancing the ability to manage changing priorities and project visibility. This is why they are often more successful and typically used in rapid changing environments. The waterfall methods, on the contrary, enable an organization to focus on solid planning, continuous business justification and robust risk management to steady the ship.
Your choice matters.
How we guide you to the right approach
Things to keep in mind
Some executives think that introducing the organization to agile will resolve all problems. On the contrary. Agility will make problems more transparent, which often leads people to dismiss the agile way of working completely. Additionally, starting up with a new method usually means that staff members also need to change their roles and responsibilities. Consequently, introducing a new framework will certainly disturb business-as-usual more than you might anticipate and it will potentially overwhelm people.
In fact, based on our experience, it takes a lot of training, discipline, commitment, openness and a change in the corporate culture to make agility or hybrid methods a success.
Executives should therefore carefully consider the design of an agile or a hybrid framework, which can be used to guide the organization towards further digitalization, improved productivity and coordination between teams.
Hybrid methods combine the best of classical and agile practices
Hybrid methods, such as AgilePM™ or SAFe™, offer organizations a way to implement a continuous change management process, while still following a clear longer term planning cycle.
During an initial project phase a tentative timeline and strategy for development and deployment is agreed. This allows a more transparent budgeting and deployment planning for the project, which is appreciated by many executives.
As the project continues to evolve, individual phases allow for time-boxes to be organized similar to SCRUM or other agile practices. Consequently, hybrid project management combines the short term focus on each product feature with a long term focus on the end result. This approach is typically well recognized in more regulated environments, such as the health or banking industry, in which stricter legal requirements must be adhered to than in other industries.
Our recent assignment
Operational and IT asset transfer
In line with the execution of an Asset Purchase Agreement (APA), our project team, which was part of a larger waterfall program, worked in weekly sprints. The objective of this hybrid approach was to address the constantly changing priorities to meet the buyers expectations in line with the sellers capabilities to deliver, while still meeting the strict APA deadline. Our quick turnaround time to new and emerging issues enabled strategic decision making at the governance level to meet the deadline.
The project was successfully delivered within 8 months.