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All faculty, staff and students have the ability to use the project methodologies.
What are our Project Management Methodologies?
Waterfall Methodology - Gantt Charts
The Waterfall methodology is the oldest and the most popular framework. It simply follows a sequential and linear process.
The Waterfall framework is composed of several stages:
- Conception – This stage involves assessing the requirements, addressing potential benefits, and analyzing the project's cost estimates.
- Initiation – This stage involves identifying the project team and defining the project objectives, scope, purpose, and deliverables.
- Analysis - This stage involves gathering and documenting the project requirements and/or specifications.
- Design – This stage involves creating the software coding and/or hardware installation protocols; with the overall goal of understanding what actions need to be taken.
- Construction – This stage involves coding the software and/or installing the hardware presented in the design phase.
- Testing – This stage involves testing the system for errors; user acceptance testing may be required prior to releasing it to the end-users.
- Deployment – This stage involves deploying the software to the end-users.
- Maintenance – This stage involves the project team monitoring, resolving, changing, or modifying the software once it has been released to the end users.
Waterfall advantages:
- Manageable – Ability to use a sequential pattern, it is easy to use and manage.
- Milestones – Ability to track progress as each stage has a start and end point.
- Documentation – Ability to provide documentation as the project advances through every stage; it also provides a paper trail and resource for future projects.
- Focus – Ability to share progress with end-users and stakeholders.
- No Training Required – Ability to start team immediately, no prior knowledge required.
Waterfall disadvantages:
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Change Management – Lacks the ability to go back change and/or update phase once it is completed.
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Software/Hardware Delays – If there are delays in software/hardware implementation due to the sequential nature of the framework, then this may cause frustration to the end-users and stakeholders.
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Requirements Gathering – The initial phase involves gathering the requirements from the stakeholders; however, this can be a challenge as the stakeholders may identify changing requirements as the project progresses.
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Costs – If any of the disadvantages mentioned occur, then it can be expensive to go back and correct any of these issues.
Agile Methodology - Card Wall
The Agile method has the perception of being less bureaucratic. This method refers to alignment, where alignment involves the developers and stakeholders collaborating with one another to align the desired product with the customer's needs.
The Agile framework is composed of several stages:
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Planning – This cycle involves the project team identifying the ideas or features by breaking down these ideas into smaller pieces of work (features) then prioritizing each feature and assigning it to an iteration.
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Requirements Analysis – This cycle involves gathering requirements and information on how, who, and why the product is being developed; the requirements must be quantifiable, relevant, and detailed.
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Design – The system and software design are prepared from the requirements identified in the previous phase. The team needs to think about what the product or solution will look like. The test team also produces a test strategy or plan to proceed.
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Implementation, Coding or Development – This cycle is all about creating and testing features and scheduling iterations for deployment. The development phase starts with iteration because there are no features being delivered. This iteration lays down the foundation for development, with tasks like finalizing contracts, preparing the environments, and funding.
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Testing – In this cycle, once the code has been developed, it is tested against the requirements to make sure the product is solving customer needs and matching user stories. During this phase, unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and acceptance testing are done.
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Deployment – After testing, the product is delivered to customers for them to use. However, deployment is not the end of the project. Once customers start using the product, they may run into unfamiliar problems that the project team will need to address.
Agile advantages:
- Embrace Change – The advantage is to accommodate and accept changes at any time, the advantage is that it is always an opportunity to refine and reprioritize.
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Unknown End Goal – The advantage is as the project progresses; the goals will become clearer as the requirements evolve.
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High-Quality Delivery – The advantage is to break down the project into iterations, which allows the project team to focus on development, testing, and collaboration at each iteration.
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Team Interaction – The advantage is frequent communication, emphasizing teamwork, communication, and accountability.
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Customer Focus – The advantage is that the stakeholder works closely with the project team and has numerous opportunities to share their input on the end product.
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Continuous Improvement – The advantage is that the Agile method encourages feedback from the stakeholders and project team throughout the project.
Agile disadvantages:
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Planning – The disadvantage can be locking down a solid delivery date. Project Managers are often reprioritizing tasks which may affect the delivery time.
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Team Knowledge Base – The disadvantage is that Agile project teams are generally small, therefore the team members must be highly diverse and skilled in a variety of areas.
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Team Commitment – The disadvantage is that Agile projects can be more time-consuming for the team members than the traditional approaches.
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Lack of Documentation – The disadvantage of the Agile approach is that this method prefers working software over comprehensive documentation; therefore, the team members may neglect to develop the supporting documents.
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Different Final Product – The disadvantage is that the Agile approach may be too flexible by lacking a definitive plan, therefore, the final product may look different from the original vision, due to evolving stakeholder feedback.
If you need further assistance, please contact the ITS Project Management Team.