Blog

Content

• The Challenge
• The Goal
• Considerations
• Next Steps

The Challenge

Today there are many different project methodologies and, project types that may be better suited to each. Matching the methodology that fits well in your project environment can make the difference between success and failure.

The pressures and decisions for what makes up your environment comes from multiple sources including: management’s stated direction, the reality of what management supports, the tools available, the client’s demands, the team’s experience and preference, and what the project needs to be successfully delivered.

There is a growing project hybrid use of cross-method tools. Although, for this article I will highlight observations of Scrum Agile and Waterfall.

From my own observations, when presented the Agile manifesto screamed that the union workers were making a stand against management and the status quo of project methods. I think this was a good thing to help people look for better ways and not get locked into one project method for potentially very different project needs. But then much of the rigidity attributed to Waterfall seemed to find its way into how many applied Scrum Agile.

Bottom line, both methodologies have their strengths and weaknesses. From my experience I’ve seen big wins and absolute failures for each. One cause of the failures I have seen was that the methodology was applied poorly. But, an even a bigger cause of failures has been that the environments were not setup or managed to make their methodology work well.

Since the Agile manifesto was presented there has been an observable great divide between those using one methodology or another. Some practitioners within each camp shut down or wave red flags when another method’s label, “Agile” or “Waterfall” is spoken. But why do so many of us attack or ignore other methods?

To be blunt…

• Agile project methods are focused on the customer and the team.
• Waterfall has more of a business and management planning focus.
• Guess what? The project environment should accommodate the customer, the team, management, other stakeholders, AND align with other project environment factors.

Now if it so happens that you have found Nirvana where your methodology exactly matches your project types, AND all of the elements in your project environment support this match up, then by all means, Congratulations!

For the majority of us where there is room for improvement, please read on.

The choice of which method to use and how to set up a fully supported environment to make it happen is not solely with the project practitioner, nor likely with any one person. The drivers to decide which method to use and what the environment will be comes from multiple parties and variables.

So what can be done to deal with this elephant?

Is there a way to align the clients, teams, tools, management, and the environment?

The Goal

It is NOT the intent of this article to put off or shutdown practitioners who believe in and have found success in a method or tool set that works for them and the projects they manage. But, it is presented to make some objective observations that I believe need to be considered and that we all need to come to terms with, if you haven’t already.

And why should anyone care?

The AI transformation that we are all just beginning will have a huge impact on business, as well as projects and how we accomplish them. I have my own mapping of how AI will change projects and organizations. I can easily see AI taking on in whole or in part many of the project tasks we do in our work (whatever the methodology). This is not a fad that will pass without affecting you.

My hope is that this article’s observations presented for your consideration can help us all start to have a healthy objective approach in considering project methodologies. And to help us see how we can best use them with a bigger picture in mind. Then perhaps we all can find better paths forward leveraging strengths and being flexible to change and still be relevant.

For purposes of this article, let’s keep an open mind to take in and consider these observations.

Considerations

Waterfall’s Past to Now

Waterfall as its name suggests is sequential. Historically, planning has been done at the start of the project, even for big, complex, longer projects that most know will need a change in plans over the course of the project. This method has been known for large amounts of documentation, of which some may be wasted with the need to redo them when things change later on. While change orders were allowed, they were effectively discouraged and required significant effort to research and get approved considering the impacts (cost, timeline, scope, resourcing) and their ripple effects.

For many organizations the project team in Waterfall has been viewed as a resource to apply. The team has been expected to make up any differences in planning estimates with overtime, or required harder work within allocated time. This may also have caused poor quality, resource attrition, and unproductive environments.

Waterfall projects have succeeded where there is a big bang launch (i.e., a bridge opens), and/or there is a known sequential process (i.e., implementing an off the shelf software package for the 500^th time). For some project types Waterfall is still the norm and in some cases may better serve the client expectations and organization needs.

Waterfall’s Potential AI-Related Future

In considering the future for Waterfall projects, consider these few topics.

• AI could be used to create plans across the spectrum of project management including
  • making recommendations for which products with what features the organization should build
  • helping determine the priority of projects for the best ROI
  • creating the project plans to do the work, schedule, budget, resources, risk mitigation, communications, organizational change management, and so on
• Initially this may be humans training AI. Although, the sequential nature of waterfall should be relatively straight forward for AI to learn and eventually master many of these elements.
• Project planning may be forced to become more objective with less room for a project practitioner or management to insert unrealistic expectations that AI won’t compute.
• The management chain may be streamlined as project documentation and data may grow, that may actually be produced and then summarized by AI. This may result in real time threshold status reporting and recommendations for corrective action. Having a summary AI dashboard that all could use and act on may not require as much management monitoring.

Waterfall’s Possible Leverage Points

Waterfall practitioners can still add value through a few things, and likely others for you to consider here.

• Planning projects will still need human judgment and reality checks across the board. You can leverage the research, templates, and recommendations of AI. And it may be some time before your organization trusts AI enough to plan projects on its own, if they ever would.
• Doing the project work, depending on the project type may require human actions. AI may be able to help, and may grow in what it can do. You may want to consider keeping the “AI objective” estimates to shore up against unrealistic demands on the project.
• Focus on human relations with clients, team members, stakeholders to improve the people side of projects.
• Focus on the project environment and aligning the pieces for productive work in the human realm. There are still many variables and data points that AI is simply not aware of, at least for now.

Agile’s Past to Now

The term Agile has been widely misused and is commonly used across its different definitions as a general methodology, a specific type of Agile methodology, a mental attitude, or an actual individual or business capability. This has led to much confusion and misunderstandings by management, and practitioners.

The Agile Manifesto made some strong statements with a focus on software regarding what is important to the client, the team, and the organization from a development team perspective. Most Agile principles were and are valid points with many of them applicable beyond the software realm.

Further study will tell you that the idea behind the Agile methodology is to NOT be prescriptive.* However, in more than one case I have seen some of the Agile flavors implemented by Agile coaches that have been rigid, with little regard for any changes from retrospective meetings.

Setting up Agile requires discipline and a compatible, supporting environment at multiple levels in the organization. Some common complaints of managers regarding Agile focus around insufficient information and certainty for management planning and operations. While Agile claims to be light, out of the box Agile does have a number of ceremonies that team members do not always value.

Agile projects have succeeded at prototyping and finding better ways through experimenting. They also can thrive in producing software releases and incremental improvements.

Agile’s Potential AI-Related Future

In considering the future for Agile projects, consider these topics.

• AI could be used to create backlogs, stories, story points, and epics for projects including making recommendations and priorities for products and their features.
• AI has been used to code and do QA from prompts and its test plans, and will only get better at it.
• Initially AI will need to be trained and tuned to do this work. The iterative nature of discovery may not be as fast for AI to master as Waterfall sequential tasks. Although, with an end goal, iterations are what AI is really good at.
• Projects in Agile, similar to Waterfall, may be forced to become more objective with less room by a project practitioner, product owner, or management to insert unrealistic expectations that AI won’t compute.
• AI may be used more to fill management information and planning needs. This may distance the team from management.

Agile’s Possible Leverage Points

Agile practitioners can add value through at least a few avenues to consider here.

• Organizing the project and team(s) especially if there is more than one team, will still need human action, judgment, and reality checks across the board. You can leverage the research, templates, and recommendations of AI.
• Keeping the pace of doing project work with stand ups, and needed sprint rituals. AI may be able to help with notes, summaries, recommendations, and may grow in what it can do. But for now the work will require human judgment and action to keep people engaged.
• Helping define and plan what work AI should not do with rationale if applicable, to show and prove areas of human value.
• Focus on human relations, especially with management, to stay connected and relevant. Also spend time to connect better with clients, team members, and other stakeholders to improve the people side of projects.
• Like Waterfall, focus on the project environment and align the pieces in the human realm. There are still many variables and data points that AI is simply not aware of, at least for now.

Next Steps

When you are talking Agile, help those out around you and specify which Agile definition you are using. Personally, I do not believe that any one methodology top to bottom is best for all types of projects. But I do think that different methodologies and/or their useful tools can be used as needed across different project types and environments.

Bottom line

I am not proposing a new methodology. I am proposing you keep the big picture in mind and consider the following steps to focus on project needs and the right environment to enable projects and practitioners to succeed.

1. See methodologies for what they were designed and not designed to do. And be objective about how well they fit or not with your project environment and needs.

2. Capture the priority and thresholds for each project deliverable and requirement that parties can align around (i.e., quality 95%, timeliness, cost…).

3. Assess the environment (all parties needs and wants, tools, project deliverable needs)

4. Before or as you start your project work, align the environment the best you can with the time and resources available to help ensure a successful project.

5. Leverage retrospectives and lessons learned action plans to petition for and make the environmental factors a better fit ongoing.

These steps will help you gain experience over time with project environments.

In the mean time, and to answer the most relevant question above, “Is there a way to see the big picture and align the clients, teams, tools, management, and the environment?” I believe there is a way, sooner than later. Actually, there is more than one way, depending on your environment and needs. When your organization is ready to tackle this elephant, please contact me.

*https://agilemanagementoffice.com/situational-agility-agile-is-not-prescriptive/