Difference between these techniques: Rolling Wave Planning, Decomposition and Progressive elaboration

Peyman,

decomposition is breaking something down into smaller, more manageable parts. You can do it with project scope in the WBS. In Scrum projects you do it during backlog grooming when breaking down EPICs into stories into smaller stories until the team thinks they can deliver it, in a Sprint. So mainly it is used with scope.

Rolling wave planning is looking primarily at the timeline, you have sequenced phases and the question is how much detail should you/can you plan ahead. So rolling wave would be looking at the next 3 months or so, detailing the work, but keeping the 2nd 3 months at a higher level of decomposition and maybe the last 3-month period not breaking down at all. In scrum that’s what you do with sprint planning, but not looking into detail into the next sprints yet.

Progressive elaboration is concerned with deliverables of the project. You build a core of a deliverable at the beginning in the 1st phase (e.g. the structure of a document), review it and extend it in the 2nd phase and so on. And so on means progressive. Elaboration means you continue to work on the deliverable and it might be finished only at the end of the project. An example is the schedule when using rolling wave planning: you won’t have any details about the last phase when you start but you have every detail at the end of the project. In Scrum this is represented by the concept of MVP.


So you see, these are general PM concepts, applicable to most project life cycles.

Kiron

I think what you are saying in Scrum projects regarding decomposition but in agile projects, DECOMPOSITION is Tool and technique of define activities, create WBS.

You have subdivided the work package into smaller manageable components of schedule activities which is decomposition

Decomposition was used to create WBS process, if u further decompose WBS package you get schedule of activities.

Two forms of Progressive Elaboration - Rolling Wave Planning and Prototypes.

Rolling Wave Planning is one of the techniques in the ‘Define Activities’ process under Project Time Management.

Prototypes are a technique in the ‘Collect Requirements’ process under Project Scope Management.

Rolling Wave Planning is the best for agile projects :

In this technique, detailed planning is done for activities in near term and high-level planning for activities to be performed far away in the future. As the project progresses, and requirements become more clear, more detailed planning is done for the work packages at lower levels of the WBS.

Are you agreed on it ?

Sergio

You can divide agile practices roughly into 1) customer and management practices, which address agile requirements analysis, planning and project management, and 2) programmer practices, which address how to work with the code in an agile way.

“Agile Development” is an umbrella term for several iterative and incremental software development methodologies. The most popular agile methodologies include Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, Crystal, Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Lean Development, and Feature-Driven Development (FDD).

Please check Wikipidia etc.

Kiron

I think what you are saying in Scrum projects regarding decomposition but in agile projects, DECOMPOSITION is Tool and technique of define activities, create WBS.

You have subdivided the work package into smaller manageable components of schedule activities which is decomposition

Decomposition was used to create WBS process, if u further decompose WBS package you get schedule of activities.

Two forms of Progressive Elaboration - Rolling Wave Planning and Prototypes.

Rolling Wave Planning is one of the techniques in the ‘Define Activities’ process under Project Time Management.

Prototypes are a technique in the ‘Collect Requirements’ process under Project Scope Management.

Rolling Wave Planning is the best for agile projects :

In this technique, detailed planning is done for activities in near term and high-level planning for activities to be performed far away in the future. As the project progresses, and requirements become more clear, more detailed planning is done for the work packages at lower levels of the WBS.

Are you agreed on it ?

Not at all. I was part of the genesis of Agile and then of Agile implementation for software when I was one of the DSDM method authors. Once again, my recomendation is you go to the basement. And let me say: if you take wikipedia as your source of information you are lost. My best regards.

Hi Thomas

Thanks, your explanation is more practicable rather than academical and theoretical explanation, many thanks, I do not aware much about scrum... I will study... But Rolling Wave Planning is part of Progressive elaboration which is useful for scheduling and planning and prototype is useful for scope managing in Progressive Elaboration... what do you think? I do not think so only useful at the end of project, it is useful throughout the project.

I'm curious Peyman. You say "Rolling Wave Planning is best for agile projects."

What do you mean by "agile projects"? What are the not so good planning approaches for agile projects?

Hi Stephane

I mean : it is the best tools & technique in Agile projects, there are many tools and technique but Rolling Wave Planing is the best one as per my opinion. what do u think?

Some of the tools are not mentioned in book but in real practice you can use it... I think the not so good planning approach are such as blaming others ...;)what do you think?

Sergio

I did not refer to Wikipedia only that just as a sample accessible then I will check and give you other references maybe from PMBOK as well but we are only discussing the subjects and challenging , anyway thanks for recommendation , I will study more academic and theory but in real practice as may encounter many gaps in between, I have managed many type of projects during past 20 years then how i managed and delivered ?!!!