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How do you choose Waterfall or Agile for projects?

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Srikana Ray
Community Champion
IT Project Manager
Hi PM Community -
If your organization uses both Agile and Waterfall frameworks, now as project manager you are provided a few projects and do not know which framework to follow. Are there specific criteria to determine which would tell us whether to use Agile or Waterfall for the projects? How do you determine the framework?
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Drew Craig Sr. Agile & Product Coach| Vanguard Philadelphia, Pa, United States
That’s a good set of criteria, Kiron.
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Srikana Ray
Community Champion
IT Project Manager
May 23, 2018 8:00 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Srikana -

Most companies going through an agile transformation will create some sort of profiling checklist to assess how suitable a project is to follow one lifecycle vs. another - a number of different criteria can be consulted to decide including:

- level of uncertainty regarding the requirements & solution approach
- level of technical and operational risk
- ability for the customer (or a very close proxy) to work closely with the team on a daily basis
- number of external dependencies or delivery partners
- ability to deliver the desired outcome in pieces vs. as a whole
- ability to dedicate core team members close to or at 100%

Kiron
Thank you Kiron. The explanation is very helpful.
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Kevin Drake Perth, Western Australia, Australia
May 23, 2018 8:00 AM
Replying to Sonja Behrmann
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This decision for me depends on the scope (agree with Kevin: well defined it invites waterfall) and also on maturity level of available project team (are they able to act agile?) and also it depends on related expectations of the principal (is agile accepted and consequences known?).
There are many other things to be aware of, that´s why I prefer to ask the team to decide on some given preconditions and guidance (in case of the role of a mediator is appropriate).
But let me return a question: What are the elements of both methods we all are choosing to accomplish a decision? Maybe a hybrid PM method is advantageuos for current project requirements - and if so, what elements are able to combine?
I worked in Germany and trained by Germans (TUeV NORD), and we share the same about the hybrid approach.
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Drake Settsu Project Manager / Blogger Hi, United States
Very good comments from the group on a very hot topic.

I feel it should never be an issue on what to choose. If you deliver the project on time within the budget on a pony that's fine with me.

My rule is if you have to ponder on Waterfall or Agile after you get a project briefing then it's time to arrange a blind date with Waterfall and Agile. You can never go wrong with a Hybrid.
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Anton Oosthuizen Senior Business Analyst / Project Manager| Self Employed Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
May 23, 2018 4:11 AM
Replying to Srikana Ray
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Thank you Eric. For a software Agile project can planning and execution be separate sprints?
As others have stated, no. You need to see each iteration as a mini cycle that excludes initiation and close out.
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