If you’re keen to kick off 2024 with fewer failed projects, it might be time to overhaul your project management approach.
If you’re keen to kick off 2024 with fewer failed projects, it might be time to overhaul your project management approach.
Did you know that a 2023 study in the International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management found that successful completion rates for Agile initiatives are at 40%, where only 15% of waterfall projects were completed?
While 40% project success is arguably lower than where anyone wants to be, we can all agree that a jump in successful projects of 166.67%% is worth the five minutes it’ll take to read this article.
So, if your project management style is feeling a little stiff and you’re ready to bring in some flexibility, it might be time to try an Agile framework like Scrum.
In this article, we’ll cover the differences between Scrum and waterfall (or traditional approach) and help you decide which is suitable for your next project.
What is Scrum in the Agile project management methodology?
Scrum is like the superhero of the (project management) agile approaches, especially in software development projects. It's the go-to strategy in the broader Agile methodology, and here's why it works.
Imagine your project as a series of sprints – short, focused bursts of work lasting around 2 to 4 weeks. This isn't a one-person show. It's all about teamwork and communication. Scrum has its own set of roles and meetings. These elements keep everyone on the same page.
What makes Scrum stand out is its dedication to transparency and adaptability as you go (vs. trying to hash out all project requirements during the upfront planning). This incremental approach is the secret sauce that keeps things manageable and moving forward.
Scrum isn't just a set of rules; it's a way of thinking. It brings the agile principles of the Agile Manifesto to life. Through collaboration, feedback, and continuous improvement, agile teams bring customer requirements to life iteratively.
There are seven distinct phases in the Agile method, where the goal is the iterative development of high-quality products or services using product and sprint backlogs.
What are product and sprint backlogs?
Think of the product backlog as the grand to-do list for your project or product. It's a dynamic collection of all the features, improvements, and fixes that need attention. Owned by the product owner, this list prioritizes tasks based on their value and importance to users and customers.
The sprint backlog is like a focused snapshot of the product backlog, featuring a carefully chosen subset of items to be completed in the next sprint. Picture it as the highlight reel for a short 2-3 week product development iteration. The sprint backlog isn't just randomly put together. It's crafted during sprint planning, a crucial session where the entire team lays out the game plan for their iterative approach to delivering a finished product or service.
This smaller list defines the specific tasks to be tackled during the sprint, all geared towards supporting the sprint goal. And here’s the great part – it’s not set in stone. The sprint backlog is flexible, evolving as the team progresses through the work. It’s like a living document, adapting to the twists and turns of the product development journey, ensuring the team stays on track and delivers the goods.
Scrum roles
Unlike other project management approaches, Scrum has set roles outside of everyone’s functionary roles. For example, your functional role might be project manager, but you might also be the Scrum Master.
The key roles of the Scrum team are:
- Scrum Master
- Product Owner
- Development Team (the rugby team)
Scrum ceremonies
In the Scrum methodology, ongoing ceremonies (events) drive project adaptability and frequent delivery. Sprint planning kicks off each sprint, followed by the daily stand-up meetings, aptly called daily Scrums, for quick progress updates. The sprint review showcases accomplishments, and the sprint retrospective allows reflective and continuous improvement. Backlog refinement fine-tunes the to-do list.
At each stage of the process, customer feedback is integrated into these ceremonies, whether through direct review meetings with the client or from user stories and feature requests. Customer feedback drives Scrum's incremental approach to continuous improvement.
Advantages and disadvantages of Scrum
Because of its prescriptive nature, Scrum is easy to implement. But it has its pros and cons.
Advantages of Scrum:
- It helps you adapt to changes easily.
- Encourages working together as a team.
- Keeps things clear with regular check-ins.
- It delivers parts of the work quickly.
- It keeps getting better with feedback from customers.
Disadvantages of Scrum:
- Teams have to manage themselves, and everyone has to contribute.
- It can be challenging for established teams with a sequential process to adapt quickly.
- Too many meetings can slow things down if they aren’t run correctly.
- Scrum is an all-in approach that comes with meetings, roles, and backlog management out of the box, so it can be tricky to dip your toe in.
What is the waterfall methodology?
The Waterfall project management methodology is a more traditional way of managing projects. Waterfall models follow six steps in a linear nature: requirements, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance. One after the other, no jumping ahead to the next stage until you've finished the previous stage.
It's big on upfront planning, which works well for projects with clear goals. But here's the thing - once a step is done, going back is a bit tricky. So, if you need to change something, it can be a headache.
Waterfall project management is a sturdy ship for straightforward projects, but if your project needs some flexibility, Waterfall can be a risky approach.
Waterfall phases
So, how do the six phases play out in the Waterfall approach? Well, they cascade like (you guessed it) a waterfall. After an initial planning phase, the phases are as follows:
Requirement phase: This is where you figure out what the project needs (i.e. lay the groundwork for the rest of the project).
Design phase: Now you plan everything in detail. It's like creating a blueprint and deciding on the architecture and technology to use. This sets the stage for the building.
Programming phase (a.k.a. building or development process): Here's where the magic happens. You turn those plans into a real product. Think about writing code, putting pieces together, and testing how everything works.
Testing phases: You check if the product meets all the requirements. Various tests are run to make sure everything is top-notch before moving forward.
Deployment phase (a.k.a. implementation phase): Time to release the tested product to the real world. This is when the project's deliverables come to life.
Maintenance phase: After the big reveal, it's not over. This phase is all about keeping things running smoothly. Business as usual (BAU) mode.
These phases are the backbone of the waterfall project development approach, which can be great for large, complex projects that call for detailed project plans and an accurate project budget upfront.
Waterfall roles
The Waterfall approach doesn't have defined events (ceremonies) like Agile projects. There are no constant feedback sessions or review meetings, and there are no sprints.
For this reason, waterfall is considered a more rigid approach to projects because it is tough to change course once the blueprint is approved and work is underway. In Scrum, work can be reviewed at the end of each sprint, and feedback is often incorporated continuously.
This isn't to say that you can't incorporate Agile core principles, like daily meetings (stand-ups), user reviews, or retrospectives, into a waterfall project workflow. This is how hybrid models work (but that's another subject for another day).
Waterfall ceremonies
The Waterfall approach doesn't have defined events (ceremonies) like Agile projects. There are no constant feedback sessions or review meetings, and there are no sprints.
For this reason, waterfall is considered a more rigid approach to projects because it is tough to change course once the blueprint is approved and work is underway. In Scrum, work can be reviewed at the end of each sprint, and feedback is often incorporated continuously.
This isn't to say that you can't incorporate Agile core principles, like daily meetings (stand-ups), user reviews, or retrospectives, into a waterfall project workflow. This is how hybrid models work (but that's another subject for another day).
Advantages and disadvantages of waterfall
With that said, what are the pros and cons of waterfall?
Advantages:
- Unlike Scrum, Waterfall goes to great lengths to address training, documentation, user acceptance testing, deployment, and ongoing user maintenance.
- Waterfall is great for projects with stable requirements (like construction).
- It's easy to understand and manage for straightforward tasks.
- Waterfall emphasizes documentation through every project stage.
- The linear approach provides a systematic workflow that's easy to replicate across complex projects.
Disadvantages:
- There's limited flexibility for changes.
- It comes with a high risk of customer dissatisfaction if initial requirements are unclear or changes are required mid-project.
- There can be a lengthy development phase before anything is delivered.
- Testing and user feedback occur late in the process and aren't an ongoing contributing factor through implementation. This can lead to misalignment of deliverables after a long production phase.
How to choose between Scrum and Waterfall?
While the differences between Scrum and Waterfall are usually defined as a set of different values and principles, the key difference between them is the deliverable you want to deliver. And to understand that difference, you need to understand the nature of your project.
For example, if you're building a plane, you already know you can't deliver that incrementally, so Scrum is out.
The same goes for a bridge. Pieces of a plane (like wings, airframe, engine power, or embedded software like autopilot) or bridge can be produced incrementally, but not integrated incrementally.
Plus, how on earth would you prioritize the "backlog" for a bridge or airplane? The deliverable is a system (stuff that all has to work together, interdependently), not a group of features.
It may be a philosophical difference, but the choice should be about the deliverable.
So, before you choose an approach for your future projects, here are some questions to ask yourself.
- What is the deliverable of this project, and how does it need to be delivered?
- How much do you need to know about the design before you start? Do you need a dedicated design phase?
- How integrated and compartmentalized are the segments of the deliverable? Do they need to be produced after other features? What are their dependencies?
- How much change do you expect during the project lifecycle (market and product)?
- What kind of team do you have (cross-functional vs. specialized)? And what PM approach are they familiar/comfortable with?
Three pro tips to level up your chosen method right now
Before you get the team all excited about completely overhauling their workflows, here are three quick ways to dip your toe in the water to see which approach feels right for you and your business.
1. Take it one step at a time
- If you try to overhaul your project management approach in a day, you’ll end up with chaos.
- Start with one focused step. In Scrum, for example, try implementing one ceremony, or in Waterfall, break down one implementation phase into small sequential steps.
2. Choose a pilot project to test what you’ve learned
- When you feel confident enough to jump in and test out the full Scrum process, for example, choose a simple project.
- Implement the roles, the ceremonies, and the backlog refinement process and track your progress sprint by sprint for the entire project.
3. Use an AI-driven project management assistant
- Take the heavy lifting out of your project management with an AI-driven assistant.
- Auto-schedule tasks and track progress, all from a central dashboard.
- See your chosen methodology play out as the optimal schedule is automatically created for each of your staff daily.
Motion, your project management framework = unstoppable!
Whether you're an Agile ninja or all about Waterfall, Motion has all the features of a project management tool with the added boost of an AI-driven project-managing personal assistant.
- Manage all of your tasks in the list or Kanban view.
- Monitor your entire project and send status updates to your clients with a quick screenshot.
- Create the optimal daily schedule for your project team, all in one place.
As you kick off a new year, it's time to usher in a new phase of project success for you and your team.
