What I Learned Managing Projects When the Methodology Didn’t Fit

Scott Ainsworth-Wainwright - October 21, 2026

Within our organization, we often don’t get the dream project—or one that neatly matches our aspirations or skill set. We are a business, and business need takes priority. We have a fixed corporate methodology that has evolved over many years. The internal framework, based on PMI’s A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide), offers a single point of reference for the toolkit we use to deliver projects successfully to corporate standards and expectations.

But sometimes, as we are taught in the fundamentals of project management early in our careers, we must tailor process to delivery. The challenge comes when the commercials define the recommended use of our corporate methodology, yet the project is clearly better delivered using a different approach.

In early 2022, a statement of work landed in my inbox. It was a large, multi‑pound services engagement delivering support to another service integrator. The SOW covered services to support the deployment of a next‑generation cloud platform: physical data center design and deployment, followed by technical consulting to implement virtualization and application layers.

At first glance, the design and physical deployment stages fitted the corporate methodology well. The phases and stages sat neatly in a waterfall project plan and could easily be delivered under PMBOK principles. …

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