What project methodology to choose?

The traditional method has been Waterfall which later evolved in to certified streams being Prince2 and PMI. It was a long process where all requirements were defined in detail and signed off before development and implementation were started. Projects could run for a very long time and changes to the content (aka Scope Creep) demanded delays in planning and delivery and thus the overall project could even be more delayed. Everything is under a control mechanism and can be restrictive as it is managed top-down.

Over the years, this model has become more flexible, cutting up the project in phases per product (or swimming lanes) so that the design process has a time box and flexibility to create, re(de)fine requirements before you go a final build. But the changes in planning and budget usually require the approval of a Steering committee, this body usually has senior leaders in there who meet in cadence with weeks in between. Agendas are tight so ad-hoc meetings are not preferred. So decision-making potentially could lag and delay the project even further.

It's a good process for big projects in large organizations and with a long duration, control from the top is in place, and usually in the end the product is released with a big bang, think of an ERP implementation.

In the mid-90s Agile Scrum arose when people sought a solution where design and development go together in quicker iterations. This way, the quality of products could be low initially but by implementing a flexible cycle and continuous improvement the quality over time improves drastically and the first projects delivered a solution within a shorter time frame.? Business owners operate separately and define requirements, the scrum teams confine themselves to two-week cycles to develop a product addition (increment) and let the business show results in a fast way, thought processes satisfying mainly bottom-up way of working, if you want more details read Scrum by Jeff Sutherland.

The SAFE framework was introduced so scrum teams, within an organization, have better collaboration, connect strategy from management to the different streams and thus have a better flow overall, interdependencies are identified in Quarterly planning sessions and all teams have an overall view and alignment of the company’s priorities.

Recently EXIN introduced the DPMM methodology, which reads very interesting, it seems it has a solution to do a project management layer over the teams and products who can work within their project methodologies (SCRUM, Kanban, Waterfall). Would love to put it into practice.

So, coming back to the question, what to use? That’s a company’s decision, possibly the DPMM gives flexibility but overall choose your process. If you define clear strategies and have clear project and product goals with proper milestones to evaluate those goals so that you’re not chasing your tail and standardize the information required to keep management informed on status so they can make sound business decisions you’re already a long way in maturing your organization with your changes. If you need help in deciding what to use, you know where to find me..