By: Kazon Robinson
Projects are formulated and produced by organizations to
gain profit and expand the organization. Every project formulated, whether it
is big or small, needs some form of planning because without planning, a
project could result in failure.
Fortunately, there is a way to go about that business of
creating an outline for a project - Project Management Methodology (PM). Today, there are various PM methodologies and
author Moira Alexander addresses a few very well in her recent article,
“How
to Pick a Project Management Methodology”. Specifically, three
methodologies that stand out from the rest are Agile, Waterfall, and Scrum.
Agile: Alexander
writes, “The Agile Methodology was developed for projects requiring significant
flexibility and speed… Agile may be best-suited for projects requiring less
control and real-time communication within self-motivated team settings.” So, a
possible recommendation would be an open space office where communication is faster
paced and thoughts are able to exchange faster.
Waterfall: “Used
across many industries, most commonly in software development. Waterfall allows
for increased control throughout each phase but can be highly inflexible if
scope changes may be anticipated later,” according to Alexander. The Waterfall
methodology is used for more complex projects being as there is a need for more
control throughout to handle the complexity.
Scrum: Scrum is an agile
development framework that is more so used for software development but is now
generally used in complex projects.
In addition, there are many other PM Methodologies such as
Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM), Six Sigma, Crystal, or Feature Driven
Development (FDD). This amount of various methodologies helps organizations
settle on a certain way of performing a project whether it is complex or
simple.
Every methodology works in a business, some work better than
in others depending on the situation and if the situation does not always fit
the project methodologies framework it can lead to
undesirable
results. Nevertheless, no project is the “best of the best” and Alexander explains
what to look for in a methodology. “When evaluating methodologies, these are
only a few of the many factors that should be carefully considered: risks,
complexity, constraints, project size, and cost…” Those are some of the factors
to consider when looking at different project management methodologies.
In the end, what needs to be focused on is how projects
improve or better the whole organization’s objectives. Once you determine the
success or failure of those goals, look for the best methodologies that suits
your organization’s needs.
About the Author:
Kazon Robinson is currently a Marketing Intern at IIR USA and a high school student at All
Hallows. Kazon helps oversee and revise the data entry of spreadsheets with
information relating to investors, twitter handles, and conferences. He also has
experience interacting with other writers from participating in the AH Writers
and Authors Club. He has previously worked at Bronxworks Betances Community
Center as an Office Assistant where he provided professional service and
directions for callers. He can be reached at krobinson@iirusa.com
