12 Practical Considerations for Wildly Successful Traditional and Agile Project Management Results

Answers to Common Questions About Traditional and Agile Project Management Initiatives

There are tens of project management methodologies; and pre-2020, many project managers have taken sides on their preferences or votes for the most effective project delivery methods.  They generally prefer either Traditional (Waterfall) or Agile (Scrum and Kanban are most popular) project management methodologies or systems.  This article will consider both sides and at a high-level, highlight many of the key methodologies, frameworks and practices that are necessary to ensure the success of most any project. (See Figure 1 - Overview). These are conclusions based not only on knowledge of sound project management principles but also practical and holistic approaches based on experience to both business operations and projects of varying sizes and complexities.

Figure 1 - High Level Overview  - Key Considerations 

Key Considerations

1. The overall PM and manager responsible for delivery of the project must understand the business case, complete scope and the benefits of implementation.
2. The overall PM and manager responsible for delivery of the project must understand how requirements will be determined as inclusively as possible, measured, valued and refined.
3. The roles responsible for contract delivery must understand both agile and traditional methods and impact (financial, legal, operational, positive and negative) to the roles involved (stakeholders, customers, vendors, etc.)
4. The organization (senior Management) must understand and accept the level of sponsor, stakeholder and senior management engagement needed based on the type of project (waterfall or agile) being delivered.
5. The organization (senior management) must understand and support that there are times when, on large, complex projects, a hybrid methodological project approach may be required for optimal success.
6. The managers responsible for project delivery must understand not only incremental value delivered during project iterations but business value and impact in relation to operations after implementation.
7. The managers responsible for project delivery must ensure that the right team members are put in place for key project roles (project manager, product owner, SME, scrum master, etc.) with the appropriate level of expertise, authority and trust to deliver responsibly.  
8. There must be consensus on the rules of engagement (for communication, escalations, collaboration, reporting, professionalism, conflict management, project management methods and tools, approvals and accountability) during project orientation. Orientation content and timing may be designed for specific audiences and may take place by small group or even by individual (at the senior management level).
9. The project team must be educated on Lean approaches relevant to the project at hand.
10. The overall PM and manager responsible for project delivery must be proficient in change, risk and configuration management approaches.
11. The overall PM must be proficient in agile and traditional management processes, value realization, tracking of the agreed upon performance indicators and in the financial analysis that must happen frequently.
12. Team members must have the tools and training necessary to complete and deliver their feedback and assigned work in a timely fashion. Training should be included In addition to communication tools of choice (Skype, Zoom, WebEx, Email, IM, etc.). The following matrices summarize some of the collaboration and project management tool choices. This high-level evaluation was based on research by Gartner software evaluation companies and feedback from users.  Keep in mind that an "x " is not necessarily indicative of a fault as the need for your organization and how you use the tool may vary.  There are many, many other tools available (Asana , for example, is certainly worth mentioning) so you are encouraged to take tours of the many different products available based on type of project and organization.