An Agile-Waterfall Union

  Agile   Knowledge Management   Lessons Learned   Strategy   ProjectsAtWork  

Given their fundamental differences, can Agile and Waterfall methodologies really be combined without causing more headaches than the effort is worth? Yes, but like any successful marriage, it takes some compromise and adjustment. Here are a few guidelines to make it work and reap the best of both worlds.

Today’s project leaders might think they suffer from dual-personality disorder. They’ve grown accustomed to conventional project management, which typically follows a Waterfall methodology, whereby projects move progressively through each step of a defined process, with each one “checked off” before moving on to the next. But, IT development methodologies — how the designers, coders and UI experts actually do the work — are changing. Where Waterfall used to be the gold standard for every project, Agile is becoming the favorite for software development.

Whether transitioning from one methodology to another, or trying to use both simultaneously, IT leaders often struggle to find a balance between the ship dates and the feature sets they need to deliver — and the sprints and iterations their development teams are tracking against. Like any “marriage,” it takes some adjustment and compromise to make it work. Not only does it mean learning something entirely new while still trying to get the work done, it also makes …

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