Author: Geetanjali Bhat, PMP
Today every company is a software company, and to be competitive in today’s marketplace, companies need to deliver products and services faster and better than competitors. Companies have been using the Agile Framework in their own ways, for a few years. This evening event gave me a new perspective and insights on how we can use Hybridization between Agile and Waterfall. Today’s keynote speaker Mr. Stéphane Derouin is President (and founder) of PMI France Chapter, founder of PMGS , a company dedicated to Project Management Training and also consultant. He not only brings great experience in Agile and WaterFall concepts but is also a founder & President of a think-tank on Hybrid. With such an impressive profile, I was very excited to listen to this talk!
Every Organization today is incorporating Agile in their own ways to successfully deliver products.
For PM traditional approaches such as Waterfall delivery of anything less than 100% of project requirements is seen as a quality failure, but in Agile, quality of the solution or solution increment is judged against it meeting the customer needs. Using different tools & techniques, it becomes easier to achieve a better solution.
Agile has 20 methodologies, with Scrum being the most popular. But the question here is if Agile methods are enough? If we analyse the different approaches to manage a project, what are they?
- Waterfall
- Hybrid
- Agile
We definitely hear and know about the Waterfall and Agile approaches. But what is Hybrid and how can we do it?
Hybridization meant first values and mindset. One can define it as a new spirit of agility that is being added to Hybridization - an agility to manage complexity.
With a musical illustration , if a waterfall model is used, it sounds like a symphonic orchestra, and with Agile methodology, it’s like modern jazz. But when we use a Hybridization of both it's like rock ‘n roll.
The Hybrid Model integrates the Servant Leadership Model. The five primary duties of performing as servant leader in this role are:
- Shield the team from interruptions
- On board the team and create dynamic
- Remove Impediments to progress
- Re(communicate) project vision
- Carry all necessary support
All in one, we can say tailoring is required as every project is unique in its own ways. Tailoring should be selecting the appropriate project management processes, techniques and tools which makes it Hybrid. Competing constraints like risk, quality, scope, cost, resources and schedule should be addressed.
This makes us further question: “Can Hybrid be used in Portfolio level too?” If we select the right method for the right project, we can derive at right solutions too.
Hybrid Project Management is how we can integrate Agile and Waterfall in any one of the following ways:
- Deliver with Agile only with Waterfall Governance
- Deliver in Agile and Waterfall Sequentially
- Deliver in Agile and Waterfall parallelly
As a listener, I would like to summarize that Hybrid Methodology can be run as a process and a transformation journey where applied from Project kickoff to delivery, we can meet the right solutions at the right time for a successful Project delivery.