Alexandru RosioruChief Information Officer| Ministry of HealthChisinau, Moldova, Republic of
How can a project manager effectively integrate Agile Scrum practices with other project management methodologies, such as Waterfall, in a hybrid project environment?
Possible answers are the following:
- Understand the project context
- Define the hybrid project framework
- Identify suitable project phases for each methodology
- Plan for coordination and communication
- Identify integration points
- Adapt project documentation and artifacts
Life cycles and practices/tools/techniques are just choices we have in our toolbelts. The vast majority of projects will utilize hybrid methods, whether that is in the life cycle choice made by the team, the specific tools or practices used or the roles considered.
The only missing step in your list I'd add is: inspect & adapt regularly.
Kiron
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1 reply by Alexandru Rosioru
May 23, 2023 9:46 AM
Alexandru Rosioru
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Thanks Kiron!
Saving Changes...
Alexandru RosioruChief Information Officer| Ministry of HealthChisinau, Moldova, Republic of
May 23, 2023 9:13 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
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Alexandru -
Life cycles and practices/tools/techniques are just choices we have in our toolbelts. The vast majority of projects will utilize hybrid methods, whether that is in the life cycle choice made by the team, the specific tools or practices used or the roles considered.
The only missing step in your list I'd add is: inspect & adapt regularly.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Alexandru
I do agree with Kiron. It will be beneficial if you read through the Disciplined Agile and Ways of Working because they do go over how to integrate different frameworks for different environments.
RK Saving Changes...
Laura HolderAVP of Project Management Consulting| EPMA Inc.Houston, Tx, United States
Hi Alexandru,
Although your list is spot on, here is a more practical response towards building your solution.
Creating a hybrid of waterfall and agile, that is effective in communicating progress yet allows enough flexibility for the development process is to be agile, is easy to do. Start with the waterfall projects project lifecycle, keeping the Initiation, Planning, and Closing the same, but adjust how you setup and track tasks/milestones in the Execute and Monitoring/Controlling stages.
Within Execute, setup the same Agile epics/features in the project schedule as milestones. The User Stories and Work Tasks should remain in the Agile System, so do not put them in the project schedule.
On a regular cadence, track your actual time applied to the features in the Agile system insert the Feature total hours back into the project schedule Feature. This way you can compare the actual progress to the Feature's baseline and report on how the project is proceeding and against the anticipated milestones. Of course, for any major changes in delivery, make sure you use your Change Management process.
Hope this helps!
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2 replies by Alexandru Rosioru and Anthony Nigbur
May 24, 2023 1:52 AM
Alexandru Rosioru
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Thanks a lot, Laura !
Jun 07, 2023 10:20 AM
Anthony Nigbur
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I think you nailed it Laura!
I find it astounding that people find it so difficult to integrate different methodologies and solutions into one another. Every project requires planning, and all planning begins with waterfall, it doesn't matter what anyone tells you. I don't believe that can be argued. Making a list, is waterfall, and therefore, all things begin with waterfall. What changes is the feedback loops and work cycles.
What is the foundation that must be laid, it's deliverables, activity durations and dependencies to be applied to the next group of objectives? It can then move into a cyclical Agile practice or Waterfall. When I think Agile, I think operations, Agile can leave room for gaps between interdependent tasks waiting on the next sprint or PI session if not within the same, where as, Waterfall maintains a better finish-to-start relationship.
Breakout all cyclical tasks for an operational setting and improvements that can be pulled from a backlog, identify what must stay within Waterfall due to these relationships, and build your schedule accordingly. That doesn't mean it's all in a project plan, backlog or otherwise, but you can build a project schedule that incorporates backlog work identified for each sprint during PI planning sessions and overlay waterfall items before, between, or after sprints.
I truly believe people are overcomplicating Agile, and tell themselves they want to follow a specific set of rules to project management. Take it all in, identify the process, and build it out. To think every organization will be able to adhere to one practice is absurd, you are fighting too many forces.
I would add to your list identifying the appropriate lifecycle for each deliverable (e.g. scrum). Deliverables with very long lead times may employ an iterative preliminary design approach, but once you get into detail design and procurement, the cost of late change can kill a project.
Just like projects can follow different lifecycles (and I agree with Rami that DA Choose your WoW is an excellent reference), subsets within the project can also follow different lifecycles. If I am integrating hardware and software development, the 2 likely follow different methods with planned integration points. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
The point is not focus on method. The point is focus on the life cycle. And with all life cycles you can use approaches like lean or agile. So, waterfall is not sequential no matter lot of people confuse that. Then in waterfall you have feedback loops that you can incorporate including running phases in parallel.
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1 reply by Alexandru Rosioru
May 24, 2023 1:51 AM
Alexandru Rosioru
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Thanks a lot !
Saving Changes...
Alexandru RosioruChief Information Officer| Ministry of HealthChisinau, Moldova, Republic of
May 23, 2023 6:26 PM
Replying to Sergio Luis Conte
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The point is not focus on method. The point is focus on the life cycle. And with all life cycles you can use approaches like lean or agile. So, waterfall is not sequential no matter lot of people confuse that. Then in waterfall you have feedback loops that you can incorporate including running phases in parallel.
Thanks a lot !
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1 reply by Sergio Luis Conte
May 25, 2023 7:44 AM
Sergio Luis Conte
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You are welcome. By the way, just to comment, long time ago when the agile movement started to have press, I performed conferences inside the PMI World Tour about how Scrum (and other agile based methods) and the PMBOK are fully compatible. At this time there was a lot of controversies in the matter.
Saving Changes...
Alexandru RosioruChief Information Officer| Ministry of HealthChisinau, Moldova, Republic of
May 23, 2023 11:41 AM
Replying to Laura Holder
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Hi Alexandru,
Although your list is spot on, here is a more practical response towards building your solution.
Creating a hybrid of waterfall and agile, that is effective in communicating progress yet allows enough flexibility for the development process is to be agile, is easy to do. Start with the waterfall projects project lifecycle, keeping the Initiation, Planning, and Closing the same, but adjust how you setup and track tasks/milestones in the Execute and Monitoring/Controlling stages.
Within Execute, setup the same Agile epics/features in the project schedule as milestones. The User Stories and Work Tasks should remain in the Agile System, so do not put them in the project schedule.
On a regular cadence, track your actual time applied to the features in the Agile system insert the Feature total hours back into the project schedule Feature. This way you can compare the actual progress to the Feature's baseline and report on how the project is proceeding and against the anticipated milestones. Of course, for any major changes in delivery, make sure you use your Change Management process.
Hope this helps!
Thanks a lot, Laura ! Saving Changes...
Khai Ng.IT PMO | IT Project Manager| TTGROUPHanoi, Viet Nam
I would add "Coach project team". Without understanding the new methodology, project team members can not coorporate smoothly.
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2 replies by Alexandru Rosioru and Ryan McNamee
May 24, 2023 9:18 AM
Alexandru Rosioru
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Thanks. Definitely
May 25, 2023 7:06 AM
Ryan McNamee
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100%
Saving Changes...
Alexandru RosioruChief Information Officer| Ministry of HealthChisinau, Moldova, Republic of
May 24, 2023 5:25 AM
Replying to Khai Ng.
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I would add "Coach project team". Without understanding the new methodology, project team members can not coorporate smoothly.
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