Voices on Project Management

by Peter Tarhanidis, Ph.D.

Today’s hybrid work environments, ethical demands, stakeholder complexity, and organizational pace require new success criteria. According to PMI’s 2024 Pulse of the Profession report, only 34% of projects are considered successful by traditional measures of scope, time and cost. For leaders to thrive in this new reality, project guardrails must be modernized to inspire autonomy while aligning purpose, ethics, and sustainable outcomes.

Rethinking Guardrails: From Control to Catalysis
Traditional project governance structures emphasize compliance, change control, and rigid escalation paths. But in environments characterized by complexity, ambiguity, and constant change, rigid control can undermine innovation and engagement.

McKinsey & Co.’s research shows that projects with adaptive governance outperform peers by 25% in delivery of value and 30% in stakeholder satisfaction. Leaders must introduce guardrails that promote empowered decision-making within clearly communicated boundaries, and encourage distributed leadership and agility without sacrificing accountability.

5 New Guardrails for Today’s Project Leaders

1. Value Over Output: PMI’s 2023 Global Megatrends shows organizations that prioritize value over delivery metrics achieve a 42% higher rate of strategic goals. Teams that connect features to customer outcomes develop deeper alignment with mission and increase stakeholder confidence. These leaders define value-centric KPIs rather than milestone attainment.
2. Ethics Over Expediency: Edelman’s 2024 Trust Barometer indicates 71% of employees expect their companies to take a public stand on ethical issues, expect their leaders to anticipate unintended consequences, and apply ethical analysis into key decisions. Ethically governed projects report 30% fewer incidents of rework and stakeholder backlash (MIT Sloan Management Review, 2023). Empowered teams build a culture of integrity and long-term resilience. These leaders add ethical risk as part of project risk registers, ethical checklists and stakeholder impact maps.
3. Psychological Safety Over Hierarchical Control: Harvard Business School’s Amy Edmondson shares teams with high psychological safety are 27% more effective in cross-functional collaboration while enabling openness, faster error detection, and greater innovation. Projects with psychologically safe environments complete 18% faster and report 35% greater team engagement (Google’s Project Aristotle). Team members are more likely to raise early red flags and offer solutions without fear of reprisal. These leaders model curiosity, not criticism. Shifting to questions such as “What can we learn?” versus “Who’s accountable?”
4. Agility Over Certainty: Only 16% of organizations report that traditional planning methods are effective in today’s fast-paced environment (PMI, 2024). Agile projects are 2.5 times more likely to succeed than waterfall counterparts in dynamic sectors like tech, finance and healthcare (Standish Group CHAOS Report, 2023). Teams working in short feedback loops are more responsive to customer needs and regulatory changes, resulting in better user adoption. These leaders use rolling-wave planning and commit to decision-making during sprint steering reviews.
5. Stakeholder Integration Over Stakeholder Management: The modern stakeholder is no longer a passive recipient but an active participant. Projects that actively engage stakeholders experience 29% fewer change requests and 41% greater satisfaction scores (IBM Business Value Institute, 2023). When stakeholders are engaged early, then resistance turns into advocacy. These leaders manage stakeholders by listening and integrating their inputs. Use stakeholder empathy interviews and involve them in prototype testing or solution design.

Making Guardrails Operational
Putting these principles into action requires a shift in mindset and structure. Here are five ways to support your practice:

1. Formalize guardrails. Document in project charters and playbooks the team norms, governance models, and onboarding practices.
2. Measure guardrails. Use KPIs like Net Promoter Score, stakeholder sentiment, innovation speed, and compliance metrics.
3. Empower coaches and champions. Appoint internal coaches or culture champions to reinforce these behaviors during stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives.
4. Build guardrails into decision trees. Create frameworks where teams can operate with autonomy while escalating only when critical guardrails are approached.
5. Conduct quarterly guardrail health checks. Conduct quarterly “guardrail health checks” to audit, reflect and adapt. Use team surveys and external facilitators to refine policies and culture.

Conclusion
Now more than ever, project success requires leaders who can lead with precision and principle. This requires one to balance execution with empathy, speed with substance, and strategy with stewardship. The new project guardrails of value, ethics, safety, agility and integration do not constrain; rather they are cultural enablers that empower high-performance delivery within purpose-driven boundaries. These guardrails provide structure for leaders where trust replaces control, adaptability replaces rigidity, and purpose becomes the new metric of success.

What actions will you take to ensure guardrails turn from control to catalysis?

References

1. Pulse of the Profession: The Future of Project Work, PMI (2024)
2. Unlocking the Power of Agile Governance, McKinsey & Company (2023)
3. Creating a Culture of Psychological Safety, Harvard Business Review (2023)
4. CHAOS Report: Project Success Rates, Standish Group (2023)
5. The Stakeholder Experience Advantage; IBM Business Value Institute (2023)
6. Trust Barometer: Expectations of Ethical Leadership, Edelman (2024)
7. Ethical Decision-Making in Fast-Paced Projects, MIT Sloan (2023)

By

Peter Tarhanidis, Ph.D.

Project management methodologies have evolved significantly over the years, with waterfall and agile emerging as two of the most prominent approaches. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, making them suitable for different types of projects and organizational needs.

• Waterfall is a linear, sequential approach to project management. It is characterized by distinct phases; each phase must be completed before the next begins with limited ability to revisit or revise previous stages. Waterfall is effective for projects with well-defined requirements and a clear path to completion, such as construction or manufacturing projects.
• Agile is an iterative, incremental approach designed to accommodate change and foster continuous improvement. It emphasizes collaboration, customer feedback, and small, manageable units of work called sprints. Agile is well-suited for projects where requirements are expected to evolve, such as software development or other innovative fields.

Surveys indicate:

• 51% of companies implement waterfall and 71% of companies utilize agile.
• PMI’s 2020 Pulse of the Profession® report Ahead of the Curve: Forging a Future-Focused Culture indicated that 11.4% of investment is wasted due to poor project performance.
• The Standish Group’s CHAOS report showed only a 31% project success rate.
• Harvard Business Review estimated a $3 trillion annual global financial loss, wasted resources, missed opportunities, and negative societal impacts due to project failures.

Given these statistics, you may ask which method is best for a given project. Many organizations find value in blending these methodologies to create a hybrid approach, leveraging the structured planning of waterfall and the flexibility of agile. This hybrid model can offer a balanced framework that enhances efficiency, adaptability, and customer satisfaction.

While waterfall's structured approach provides clear milestones and accountability, its rigidity can be a drawback in dynamic environments. Agile's flexibility and responsiveness to change make it ideal for such settings, but it can struggle with scope creep and lacks the clear, long-term planning of waterfall.

The hybrid approach seeks to combine the best of both worlds, providing a structured framework that remains flexible and adaptable. By relying on a competency and development framework, management can highlight the key components of hybrid—consistently applying best practices to mature success and project outcomes.

Key components of hybrid project management include:

1. Phase-based structure with iterative execution: Projects are divided into phases similar to waterfall, but within each phase, agile sprints are used to execute tasks. This allows for detailed planning and requirements gathering upfront, followed by iterative development and testing.
2. Defined milestones with flexible deliverables: Hybrid project management sets clear milestones to track progress and ensure alignment with overall goals. However, the deliverables within each milestone can be adjusted based on iterative feedback and changing requirements.
3. Customer collaboration and feedback loops: Regular interactions with customers and stakeholders are maintained to gather feedback and make necessary adjustments. This aligns with agile’s emphasis on customer collaboration and helps ensure the project remains on track to meet user needs.
4. Comprehensive documentation with adaptive planning: Initial project documentation and planning follow a waterfall approach to establish a clear roadmap. Throughout the project, adaptive planning is used to refine and update this documentation based on iterative insights and changes in scope.

Steps for implementing a hybrid model:

1. Assess project requirements and environment: Evaluate the project's nature and complexity, and the environment in which it will be executed. Projects with stable requirements and clear end goals may lean more toward waterfall, while those with uncertain or evolving requirements may benefit more from agile practices.
2. Define phases and iterations: Establish major project phases with clear objectives and timelines. Within these phases, implement agile sprints or iterations to manage work increments, allowing for continuous assessment and adjustment.
3. Foster collaboration and communication: Create a culture of open communication and collaboration among team members, stakeholders, and customers. Regular meetings, such as daily stand-ups and sprint reviews, can help maintain alignment and address issues promptly.
4. Balance documentation and flexibility: Ensure that initial project plans and requirements are well-documented but remain open to revising them as the project progresses. Use documentation as a living document that evolves with the project.
5. Monitor progress and adapt: Use waterfall’s milestone tracking to monitor overall progress, and agile’s sprint reviews to assess interim deliverables. Be prepared to adapt plans and strategies based on feedback and performance metrics.

The leadership required in hybrid project management has a blend of strategic oversight and adaptive facilitation to balance the structured rigor of waterfall with the dynamic responsiveness of agile. Effective leaders in this context must embody several key traits and skills to ensure project success:

1. Visionary thinking: Leaders must articulate to the team a clear vision of the project’s goals. They need to establish long-term objectives while accommodating short-term adjustments, maintaining alignment with overall project aims.
2. Flexibility and adaptability: Leaders must pivot between structured planning and iterative development. They must be comfortable with change and capable of guiding their team through unexpected challenges and shifts in project scope.
3. Strong communication skills: Open, transparent communication is essential. Leaders must facilitate continuous dialogue among team members, stakeholders and customers. Regular updates and feedback loops are crucial for maintaining alignment and addressing issues.
4. Collaborative mindset: Encouraging a culture of collaboration is vital. Leaders should promote teamwork, ensuring that all voices are heard and valued. This involves fostering an environment where team members feel empowered to contribute ideas and solutions.
5. Strategic decision-making: Effective hybrid project leaders must be adept at making informed decisions quickly, balancing the need for detailed planning with the flexibility to adapt plans based on real-time insights and feedback.
6. Risk management: Proactively identifying and mitigating risks through both structured risk assessment and iterative reviews is crucial. Leaders must be vigilant and responsive, adjusting strategies as necessary to keep the project on track.

By embodying these qualities, leaders can successfully navigate the complexities of hybrid project management, ensuring that projects are both well-organized and adaptable to change. The overall benefits of hybrid project management provide for:

1. Enhanced flexibility: Combining structured phases with iterative sprints allows for greater adaptability to changes in project scope, requirements and market conditions.
2. Improved stakeholder engagement: Regular feedback loops and collaborative practices ensure stakeholders are consistently involved and satisfied with the project’s direction.
3. Risk mitigation: The hybrid approach can identify and address risks earlier in the process through iterative reviews, reducing the likelihood of major issues arising late in the project.
4. Balanced planning and execution: It provides a comprehensive planning framework while maintaining the flexibility needed for creative problem-solving and innovation.

In conclusion, hybrid project management offers a robust framework that leverages the strengths of both waterfall and agile methodologies. By blending structured planning with iterative execution, organizations can achieve greater efficiency, adaptability, and customer satisfaction, making it a versatile approach for a wide range of projects.

Please share in the comments how your organization defined hybrid project approaches and any case studies that you would like to share.

References

1. PMI Pulse of the Profession®: Ahead of the Curve: Forging a Future-Focused Culture
2. The Standish Group: Benchmarks and Assessments
3. It’s Time to End the Battle Between Waterfall and Agile
4. Agile vs Waterfall: Which Approach Should You Choose for Your Project
5. Waterfall vs Agile Methodology: What’s Better for Your Project?

by Soma Bhattacharya

Agile has become ubiquitous in project management, with teams using it to spark out-of-the-box thinking and drive countless projects across the finish line. Yet almost as quickly as the approach popped up, companies and project leaders began to oversell it—and what seemed to be a radical way of thinking has become mired in repetition and monotony.  

Agile was about being open and transparent, and people having the utmost importance in the process. Now, if you ask anyone about agile, it’s all about the three questions: What have you completed since the last meeting? What do you plan to complete by the next meeting? What’s getting in your way? There’s also the fear of being constantly monitored and the fact your performance is measured by your team’s velocity. 

Breaking out of this mold can prove difficult—who has the time? But with much of the world working from home, now might be the best chance to rethink agile as bold, kind and human. 

Let’s look at how that might work.

Agile is bold: Challenge the process. Question what’s right for your team and be open to experiment. To get everyone engaged, encourage team members to ask questions. And try incorporating at least one fun icebreaker in each team standup to get people to open up and spark discussion. 

Agile is kind: Just because the data seems all over the place or you don’t achieve a desired project outcome, the team is not always wrong. Look for insights, do anonymous retrospectives, dig deeper and listen more. Avoid making assumptions. Instead, remain empathetic and open as you talk through challenges and navigate team members to arrive at a solution. 

Agile is human: Agile won’t work if the team can’t work together and it’s up to leaders to foster a sense of camaraderie. One way to build this spirit of collaboration and rapport is through simple exercises, like using a sticky note or sharable spreadsheet where team members anonymously write one thing they’re good at or that they’re proud of outside of work. Then allow other team members to guess that person’s identity. This isn’t about who wins, but it gets the entire team to communicate in a low-stakes environment.  

What are the biggest challenges your team has come across with agile—and how have you overcome them?