Project management methodologies Waterfall vs. agile vs. half-arsed agile

There’s a role for all three (really) Will talk about the each approach. The suitability of each approach (pros and cons). When each approach might suit different types of Drupal projects and suppliers.

Waterfall Sequential delivery of components against a pre-defined plan.

Waterfall Gets us from A --> B. Especially useful when we know what B is. Gives us the opportunity to clearly plan and estimate each stage prior to commencing. Most used to define manage risk, allocate resources, responsibilities, scheduling etc. Most govt, big company / traditional projects are run this way. Popular implementations: Prince2; PMBok.

Waterfall Important concepts: – Requirements / acceptance criteria – Senior responsible officer / project manager – Change requests / tolerance – Risk controls / residual risk – Exception reporting / scope creep – Sign off / big bang release

Did someone say contract agreement?

Agile Iterative development, continuous improvement and very short feedback loops.

Agile Synonymous with Lean principles; and often synonymous with sprints. Focus on continuous delivery, collaboration and working products. Mantra of fail fast, fail early and testing with real users. Popular implementations include Scrum, Kanban, XP and Lean.

Agile Important concepts: – Velocity / burn-down – Continuous delivery / minimum viable products – Sprints / retrospectives – User stories / task boards – Short duration / iteration – Backlog / in progress / delivery / (verified)

Did someone forget the customer?

Half-arsed agile (or wagile)

Can be awful, but can be OK. An organisation may take the parts that can work according to their comfort and appetite for risk, or… just the worst parts of both. Common approach is a cascading set of deliverables to achieve A --> B, but flexibility within each step to get there.

Half-arsed agile (or wagile) Works best when it’s an organisation that has rigid processes in place (e.g. Government, Enterprise), but are genuinely committed to improving customer experience. Works terribly when it’s seen as a way to expedite change, avoid documentation or planning, or put off decision making.

Are we there yet? Wait, where are we?

Best and worst of each ApproachBestWorst WaterfallEncourages detailed requirements analysis Documentation and planning Rigorous risk control methodology Very little flexibility Exception reporting is often unnecessary Poor decisions during the cone of uncertainty can haunt the entire project AgileFlexible and responsive Trust in capability of team Ability to change direction Difficult to articulate project benefits Risk with program governance MVPs are actually really hard WagileAllows inflexible organisations to change approach Can allow overall direction to be planned Enables (some) course correction Easier for “managing up” Can be used as a way to mitigate doing the mandatory components of each method Poor planning and decision making Project team doesn’t know where they stand

When in Drupal ApproachWhen it use itDon’t go there WaterfallPlatform migrations Mandatory PMO Organisations with limited appetite for risk Known quantity Start-ups Limited funding Confusing tender / contract Small team of devs AgileNew development projects Customer insight inspired Drupal 8 In-house teams Enterprise companies going for their first open source implementation (unless you’re a rock star PM) WagileEnterprise companies going for their open source implementation Organisations with rigid processes but innovate leaders In-house teams “I’ve heard of this thing called Agile” Lazy organisations Organisations trying to push all risk to the vendor You don’t know who is responsible for which component “I’ve heard of this thing called Agile”