Differcences Between Agile And Traditional Project Management

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

For decades corporations have been changing from hierarchical approach to Project management in being more collaborative, as knowledge has grown in importance. In order to adjust to emerging challenges, project managers would have to be flexible and decisive in project systems, distributing innovations to support adaptation to change. This Essay gives fundamental information on both methodologies to encourage implementation by Professionals.

Handshake by Spring Stone

INTRODUCTION

Project management allows work to be done, with the intention of timely delivery that meets the user requirements in a systematic fashion. The true difference between the two is that In Agile project management evaluation of a module is necessarily present before it is passed along while, in traditional project management there is no stopping and project flow passes along and along with the expectation of good outcome and results. From Agile to Traditional project management and everything in between, the realm and its methods are there for the taking. Project management experts everywhere will argue one is better than the other depending upon types and sizes of projects. Is that really true or can you utilize any methodology for any project? In this essay, two of the most widely used project management approaches have been broken down to give a better understanding of their limitations and differences, and most importantly to distinguish the two approaches in search for similarities, strength and weaknesses, lastly to sum it all up gave a conclusion on research made, based on my understanding.

Sir/Madam, Sit back, relax as you are on a tour around the two most controversial methods being talked and argued about in terms of project planning by practicing professionals.

For, the methodology and approach to use in project planning, often leaves Project managers with druthers on which are the BEST, but also makes them responsible for failed delivery of Project GOAL.

OVERVIEW

Project management is implementing disciplined features of planning, organizing, securing, managing, leading, and controlling resources to achieve specific GOAL. In working and dealing with an increasingly volatile IT driven environment. If we take definitions of a project, when comparing project management methodologies, choosing one may come down to your teams and what sort of mindset they have or what training they’ve incurred. Below are the two major approaches and by conducting a review in Agile (light weight) and Traditional (Heavy weight) management, giving comparisons, similarities, approaches/tools and techniques used in both, in order to highlight differences between them and also a section below also criticizes the limitation of both in terms of project planning.

AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The name "Agile" was brought about when seventeen process methodologies held meeting, to discuss the process of future software development, they noticed that the methods being used by them were similar so they decided to name this process "Agile Alliance" and the manifesto of agile methodology emerged. This methodology seems to place more emphases on people’s interaction, customer collaboration and change.

Agile methodology is gaining popularity in industries today, although they compromise mix of accepted and controversial software engineering practices. Some software industries would most likely find major characteristics of (Scope, requirements, resources, architecture, and size) will determine which methodology suits them best to implement in terms of project planning, either Agile, Traditional (heavy weight) or maybe a hybrid of the two of them. Though, empirical studies would be necessary to evaluate the effectiveness and possibility of using Agile over Traditional methods.

(M. A. Awad, pg1 A Comparison between Agile and Traditional Software Development Methodologies)

Another feature is the different priority given to three major and central aspects of most projects "Feature", "Time" and "Cost".

The unique feature of Agile PM consist of Uncertainty, plus unique expertise, speed, where uncertainty both internal and external to the project, is the primary factor making the case.

APM allows projects managers and employees alike adapt to changing circumstances rather than to ignore rigid formal controls compared to the traditional methods.

(Gary Chin 2004, Steve Agile and scrum, 2012)

In discussing on variety of processes and methodologies which builds on agile values and principles, if the heart of agility is not maintained, then simply following an "Agile" process is not agile. . "Agility is means to an end, not the end itself"

(Cockburn A. Selecting a project’s Methodology, Apr 27 2005).

TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Traditional project management practices (TPM) were clearly defined and soon was being implemented in the world of engineering and construction professionals, where the team expects a clearly stated out document from the clients on, what they want, when they want, and how much they would be willing to pay for their wants, all wrapped in a neat package delivered to the project manager. One of the major problems faced by this methodology was to differentiate the Wants and Needs.

( Effective project management. pg2. Robert K.Wysocki )

TPM has an advantage where the project requirements and documentation is clearly stated out, defined upfront and where there is little change during the project. Once started, changes to the specification would have a crucial impact on budget and time, using this system in planning a projects means once the project scope is defined, you’ll be giving teams clearly stated, task and timelines in other to achieve the GOAL, and is mostly used in software development. The success of this approach literally lands in the clients lap (responsibility). Critics in this base usually points that it doesn’t consider a place for change control, when problems are being encountered during projects process. For example if team X, passes to team D and then to team E and team E finds fault from team X, it then makes it hard to go back, notwithstanding some do prefer this because of its linear approach and when good user input is achieved early. (Jean Scheid 2012)

DIFFERCENCES BETWEEN AGILE AND TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PROJECTS

In Traditional Project Management, well understood features, requirements and functions are given and clearly stated out to give a broad view and understanding of the project, while in Agile Project Management, the complete project requirements are being discovered by doing the project in iteration, which therefore reduces and eliminates uncertainty. Thus, Agile projects tends to be of higher risk compared to Traditional, but Agile has advantage of being flexible to adjust more easily to project requirement changes

( Agilsm Vs Traditional Approaches, p6, Daniel J, John D. Fernandez)

In Traditional projects, there is a heavy dependency on written communication. This often brings about conflicts between those responsible for major areas of projects. This method again is mostly seen and regarded as unnecessarily slow and less good when it comes to adapting to fast changing external environment. Whereby, in APM another distinguishing feature is the different priority given to 3 (three) central aspects of projects: (I) Features (ii) Time and (iii) Cost. TPM tends to treat (I) Features as totally fixed in the initiation process, while Agile treats and applies very strict discipline to the three but also accepts review and prioritization of the "Features" to be used.

(Steve A. Agile & Scrum 2012)

TEAM Work

TPM easily supports more of distributed work teams, of highly trained specialist and junior workers, because of its well defined requirements and documentation. While Agile project team requires co-location of team members in other to welcome change and produce increments rapidly. Agile is usually preferred for projects that are being worked upon from different or multiple locations. The level of commitment of Agile team members is greater than, Traditional team as they are being called upon to take responsibility in their projects.

Project Managers

Traditional Project managers manage projects against budget, schedule and scope. He also wants to reduce risk and preserve constraints of Time and Money. In contrast, the Agile Project manager is more focused to deliver; the business value, budget and timeline are secondary. He is trained to deliver instead of adherence to processes like the Traditional project manager.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT (TPM)

Tool Oriented: Project tools, Code editors, compilers, etc must be present for completion and delivery of task.

Predictive approach: This approach follows an engineering discipline, where the development is predictable and repeatable, having the drawing which focuses on the need of the system and how to resolve the needs, it is then, predicted that the building would follow the drawings.

Comprehensive Documentation: This deals with the customer requirement, upfront, prior to writing codes. And the TPM views this document as the key piece of documentation.

Process Oriented: There is a well defined procedure for the team members and it consists of tasks given out to each of them, which serves as a process and a guideline for everyone who happens to be using it.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT (APM)

People Oriented: The APM considers people -customers, developers, stakeholders and end users- as the, most important factor, because when combining the talent, skill and communication, of people, if good enough, they could use almost any process and accomplish it.

Adaptive: People working with APM are not scared of change. Agilists always have room for change.

Simplicity: the agile team always takes the easiest path that usually leads them to achieving their goal.

Collaboration: APM involves customer feedback on regular and frequent basis, therefore, allows them to work hand in hand to achieve the GOAL, with little or no room for mistakes in the delivery.

SOME METHODOLOGIES IN AGILE AND TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT

TRADITIONAL (HEAVY WEIGHT) METHDODOLOGY

WATERFALL

SPIRAL MODEL

UNIFIED PROCESS

WATERFALL MODEL

In the year 1970, Winston Royce proposed the waterfall methodology, this emphasizes on a structured progress between stages, where each stage consist of a defined set of activities and deliverables that must be met/achieved before the next phase can begin, the phases are mostly given different names but the basic idea is to capture what the system will do in the first stage. The second determines how it will be designed. The third is where developers start with writing the codes. The fourth phase deals with testing of the system. And the final stage which deals with training and documentation.

SPIRAL MODEL

In an effort to combine advantages of both the Top-down and Bottom-up concepts the spiral model was created by Barry Boehm, which deals with the adding up of elements of both the design and prototyping-in-stages and are of four main phases:

Objective setting

Risk assessments and reduction

Development and validation

Planning

AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT (LIGHT WEIGHT)

SCRUM

EXTREME PROGRAMING (XP)

ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT (ASD)

SCRUM

When the Traditional methodology is defined to respond at the unpredictability of the external and development environments at the start of the enhancement cycle the Scrum methodology, on the other hand, is designed to be flexible throughout. It provides control methods for planning and then manages the variables as the project progresses. This enables the team to change the project deliverables at any point in time. It also allows the developers to device the most ingenious solutions throughout as learning occurs and environment changes.

(Ken Schwaher, p3, Scrum development process)

EXTREME PROGRAMING (XP)

XP is a methodology which has been given attention to in the year 200 and 2001, with the package of several practices and ideas, which are mostly not new, but the combination of these packages now made it new. The reason that makes XP unique is because of the feature of making the developer to be responsible in the creation of the project. So far, few reports have been made available with regards to XP. Especially, well structured reports of attempts to fully introduce XP are rare.

(Daniel Karlstrom, p2, introducing extreme programming)

STRENGHT AND WEAKNESES OF AGILE AND TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANGEMEENT

AGILE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

STRENGHTS

Discovers complete project management requirements by doing the project in iteration, therefore reducing and eliminating uncertainty.

Applies very tight discipline to "Time" and "Cost", but accepts reviews of "Features" Delivered.

WEAKNESSES

While the method is available, only consortium members have access to white papers dealing with the actual use of the method.

Requires co-location of team members and staff in other to embrace change and produce increments.

TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT

STRENGHT

Begins with a complete set of requirement and documentation before work begins, which gives everyone a clear view, of the processes involved in achieving the GOAL

Supports distributed work teams of workers because of well defined requirements and documentation.

WEAKNESSES

Heavy dependency of communication between team, which usually brings conflicts between those responsible for different aspect projects.

Risk tendency is high because, once defined there is no or little room for change.

CONCLUSION

In the end, it is still difficult for a project manager to choose the right methodology. Forethought may be which methodology are you most familiar with and have had success with? There will always be debaters on which methodology is more effective and which has the best track method, it takes a blend of all of them to get from point A to point B.

The challenge therefore is for project managers to critically analyze and choose appropriate step or approach in planning. For the approach taken in planning the project, determines the project GOAL

"Projects are problems schedule for solution". (Dr J. M Juran 1995)