Blending the Best: Adapting Agile practices into Waterfall Projects for a powerful Hybrid approach

The Project environment is perhaps going through its most transformative phase right now. The traditional Waterfall or Predictive Project framework got some company when Agile framework (fuelled by software development projects) came into being at the turn of the century. The environment was further churned during the pandemic (2019 to 2022) which ushered in remote work. The Agile Project framework encompasses Scrum, DSDM, Feature driven development, Extreme Programming etc.

The Project industry liked the Agile framework and quickly adapted it.

What is interesting is that many of the principles and practices of one approach started finding their way into the other. Nothing wrong with that- as each of these (Waterfall or Predictive and Agile) are two FRAMEWORKS and not METHODOLOGIES. Hence a performing organization can adapt to suit its need.

Now you have a Hybrid approach which is a blend of the Predictive and Agile approaches.

If we place the Predictive and Agile approaches at two extreme ends, say Left and Right, the Hybrid approaches can fit anywhere in between. They could tilt towards Predictive on the Left or towards the Agile on the right.

In this article, I give a list of Agile Practices and Principles which can readily find a place and add value to any Project using the Predictive or Waterfall framework. This is not an exhaustive list- one can add/reduce based on one’s needs.

1.???? Daily Stand Up- A 5 minute daily stand up where each team member gives answers to 3 questions – ‘

o?? What did I do (achieve) yesterday?

o?? What am I planning to do today?

o?? What is coming in the way?.

As the name goes it is a Stand Up and not a sit down meeting which may tend to meander.

A daily stand up can bring focus to the work on a daily basis, bring out issues instantly and find solutions regularly. Daily stand ups can also reduce the stress on weekly project meetings.

2.???? A simple Visual Work Monitoring Tool which is necessarily High Touch and Low Tech like the ‘Scrum Board’ or the ‘Kanban Board’ (or any adaptation thereof) ?with columns such as ‘To do’, ‘In Progress’, 'Under Review' and ‘Done’ to track deliverables. Such a board in the project ‘war’ room can help the entire team be on the same page, encourage interaction and constructive discussions.??

3.???? Self- Organization. Anyone who has managed a project and led a team knows the tremendous value which a team with experience and knowledge of the Project tasks can bring. Spending funds on upskilling a team could be well worth it. ?A project manager could work with less of the ‘Command and Control’.

4.???? Customer Collaboration – Traditionally a waterfall project started with a contract between the customer(internal or external) and the performing organization, followed by the performing organization creating and delivering the agreed upon Project deliverables. Ideally the customer came in at the beginning and end. Bringing the customer in or checking with/informing the customer regularly on the developments can definitely help know that the performing organization is on the right track. The Agile Manifesto states ‘Customer collaboration over Contract negotiation’.

#projectmanagement #waterfallproject #agileproject #scrum #hybrid #visualtool

#projectframework #projectmethodology #scrumboard #kanbanboard #dailystandup #selforganized