Check out our latest video as we explain the in-depth meanings of 7 different types of project management methodologies. These are some of the common frameworks used around the world. There are loads more methodologies out there, so please list them in the comments below!
Waterfall
This is the oldest and probably the most widely known methodology on the list. It was first described by Herbert D. Benington at the Symposium on Advanced Programming Methods for Digital Computers on 29 June 1956. It’s been refined and reworked over the years until it became the model we know today.
Just as the name suggests this is a sequential model. You work your way from one step to the next and can’t start a step until you’ve finished the preceding one. Waterfall is used practically everywhere. I haven’t worked in any organisation that hasn’t used waterfall in one form or another. It’s great to use if your project is very complicated or needs to follow a specific step by step process. On the negative side, it can be a very rigid methodology and in all honesty it’s not really suitable for fast moving or iterative projects.
Agile
Which is the antithesis of waterfall. Its whole premise is to be flexible and light touch. It emphasises team collaboration and the idea that everything is iterative. At the end of every cycle or sprint the product is evaluated so it’s really easy to adapt to changes and it can even be that the final product bears no resemblance to the one that was originally planned. Agile is great for companies that are releasing products quickly and regularly. It’s one of the reasons why it’s so popular in software development. It’s also got strong support in manufacturing and creative industries. It’s not great for projects that don’t need or want a lot of stakeholder input or if the project is really complicated.
PRINCE2
PRiNCE2 stands for Projects in Controlled Environments2 and its a structured project management methodology. It came out of the UK government and has spread around the world. It consists of 6 tolerances, 7 principles, 7 themes and 7 processes. It also prescribes 26 management products that should be created.
This is a great methodology for accidental and incidental project managers as it hand holds you through the entire end to end process of managing a project as well as giving you templates for each of the key project documents. It’s used extensively in public sector projects, particularly in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Given its complexity I wouldn’t use it on smaller projects and its very prescriptive nature means it’s unlikely to work well in fast moving project environments.
Hybrid Project Management
Is exactly what is says. A combination of methodologies. It means you get the best of both worlds without the downside of either.
This won’t work if you work in an organisation that’s wedded to a particular methodology or if the team is unfamiliar with one or other of the methodologies being hybridised. Of course using more than one methodology at the same time is risky so I advise using it with caution!
Critical Path
The critical path, or golden thread is a way of visualising your project. Its premise is that there are some tasks that can’t be started until something else is completed. When you string them all together you get the critical path of your project. If you focus all of your effort and resources on achieving this critical path then you get the most important work done and can reprioritise the non critical path tasks. It’s great for working out exactly what resources you’ll need and when, but that very positive also means it’s less suited to projects that change quickly. To make it work effectively you need to have an extremely detailed work breakdown structure so it’s less effective on bigger projects where getting that level of detail can be difficult.
Critical Chain Management
Focuses on the resources that you’ll need to complete a project. It encompasses equipment, people and space. The aim is to keep everything balanced and be flexible with start dates, it builds buffer time around those activities and it’s been credited with delivering projects 10 – 50% faster than traditional methods.
As it’s a less technical methodology it can be used pretty much anywhere that runs projects.
Extreme Project Management
It’s related to Extreme Programming and is used on projects where there is a high level of unpredictability, when there needs to be huge amounts of flexibility or when a lot of stakeholder engagement is required. One of the main differences between this and other project management methodologies is that it demands huge commitment from the project sponsor, who needs to be actively involved at all steps of the project.
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