How do you bridge the gap between SCRUM Agile Approach and Traditional Waterfall?

I worked in the public sector from years including the fact I was the leader of a program that got an award from the PMI. In the last one we use a mix of methods where DSDM was the main method we used. First of all, Agile is not a method is a practice then you can apply Agile with waterfall life cycle process. We did that and lot of others did that (SAP based methods for example). My recommendation is taking a look to the new PMBOK Guide version because is a very well explanation about all related to life cycle models, process, methods I think will help you. BUT take into account: each thing you use to make something will impact the organization as a whole and the decision is because it will solve a problem. Here a paper I wrote and was published by the PMI and the IIBA that perhaps it helps at least to give you another idea: https://www.projectmanagement.com/blog-pos...-right-solution

Depends on the projects that you are doing
Much easier with Software development projects, not so much with construction projects I have heard.

One of the first things you can bring agility into Waterfall projects is Instead of waiting for fortnightly , weekly or monthly meetings to discuss the project progress, why not do a Daily Scrum?

This improves stakeholder engagement, team cohesion and communication and helps identify gaps . For example , you may discover a key stakeholder that needs to be informed about the project or a team member that requires additional coaching. You may even be able to solve risks and issues faster than a traditional waterfall approach.

Next, you can break down the waterfall project into discrete phases

Plan a discovery Phase /Feasibility Phase where you are doing a market scan on choosing the best vendor out there. Go no further than planning to select the vendor. Produce a Solutions Options Paper at the end of the phase. This way you don't plan all the phases until execution and you are still using Rolling Wave Planning, but are more agile.

Next you have the build phase. No need to document all the requirements up Front.

Once you have the Vendor or the development team , do incremental requirements and development phases where you begin with a smaller set of requirements, develop the working product features to those specifications, get customer sign off on product acceptance for that phase Then start the planning and development of the next phase

You are therefore making sure that you are incrementally producing a working product, service or outcome.

Agility could apply even for process improvement type projects where you achieve quick wins first and then plan for the detailed phases to achieve subsequent objectives.

Sarabjeet -

It's important to understand the difference between agility and an agile methodology. The former is about mindset and behavior which is applicable to any and all projects. The latter depends on mindset and behavior to be successful but is usually relevant to a subset of an organization's projects.

Agile transformation requires exceptional change management - top-down and bottom-up support is required to be successful, and the journey will be measured in years, not months, so patience & a willingness to play the long game are critical.

Kiron