Bridging the Gap
Harnessing the Best of Traditional and Agile Project Management
All methodologies and frameworks of the project management world have been built on a single knowledge base developed during the last 80 years. Understanding and internalizing this knowledge base supports all professionals in the business world when managing a project.
Scope management is an excellent example of this common knowledge base.
For example, phases and work breakdown structures are the two critical tools in traditional project management. Subdividing a project into manageable stages increases a project manager's control over the project. The phases make up the life cycle of a project, but not every project requires phases. There should be a reason, a value in phasing a project.
Work breakdown structure (WBS) is a similar process of scope management. WBS also subdivides project work into smaller, more manageable components, namely work packages. Compared to phasing, it is a lower-level process, but without a WBS, you can not manage the scope. Therefore, regardless of the size and the type of a project, all project managers are expected to use it in the traditional project management world.
Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog, and user stories are similar tools of the Agile frameworks. The Product Backlog represents the complete list of desired features, enhancements, and fixes prioritized by the product owner. It serves as the single, dynamic source of requirements for the project.
The Sprint Backlog and the user stories represent the subset of items from the Product Backlog selected for a specific sprint. It is a time-bound iteration, delivering a valuable increment of the product.
All those processes and tools serve the same purpose; Managing the scope. They offer value for all project management professionals regardless of methodologies and frameworks.
Project managers from the traditional world can benefit from agile practices even when using the waterfall methodology. For example, traditional world project managers can improve the effectiveness of a WBS by being inspired by the "Product Backlog" tool to bring dynamism and flexibility to the use of WBS. Likewise, user stories can be adapted to the work package activities to communicate more clearly with customers and take a more customer-oriented approach.
A product owner, a scrum master from the agile world, can also benefit from traditional project management tools and processes. For example, Agile frameworks have limited capabilities to show the big picture when managing a project. An Agile project team can grasp the big picture of a project by understanding portfolio and program management concepts. Such an understanding supports an agile team when communicating with impatient executives expecting at least a high-level plan linked to company strategies. Similarly, being aware of the phasing functionality and adapting it to an agile framework may yield more mature product backlogs.
As a result, whatever the methodology used, project managers can benefit from the practices and techniques of both traditional and agile approaches. The methodology or framework chosen should not limit project teams to predefined rituals.