The Agifall Model: A Methodology Hybrid that Might Work for You
Mike Donoghue is a member of a multinational information technology corporation where he collaborates on the communications guidelines and customer relationship strategies affecting the interactions with internal and external clients. He has analyzed, defined, designed and overseen processes for various engagements including product usability and customer satisfaction, best practice enterprise standardization, relationship/branding structures, and distribution effectiveness and direction. He has also established corporate library solutions to provide frameworks for sales, marketing, training, and support divisions.
For those of us who are struggling to work out a compromise or hybrid of waterfall and agile project management methodologies, say hello to “Agifall.” Presented by Mark Fromson at the Vancouver Digital Project Managers Meetup Group a few years ago, the Agifall process is designed to help us try to resolve how we can reap the benefits of both by inserting agile methodologies into an unrestrictive waterfall process. The goal of this infusion is to achieve the commonly held desire to improve project speed, lower costs of the project and create better/higher-quality results.
In his presentation, Fromson provides a brief overview of how waterfall and agile methodologies operate and then forms a segue into the “good” and “bad” functions each one supports. As many seasoned project team members have found over the years of practicing the two concepts, there are certainly positives and negatives to both approaches. Contractual obligations and expansive/layered projects are examples of where a waterfall process needs to be more strongly adhered to when it is necessary to demonstrate the completeness of a project. Pilot efforts that demonstrate potential and small releases to help improve an organization’s competitive edge or to stay current with business and environment changes are examples where an agile process is more appropriately needed.
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