What’s the difference between traditional and agile project management?

Vishal Biyani_2pr07j

Traditional project management often referred to as Waterfall, is a linear and sequential approach. 

Advantages:

• Clear structure and documentation.
• Defined phases.
• Defined phase gates.

Disadvantages:

• Change is not welcome.
• Can be slow to adapt to new information or requirements.
• Potential for higher costs if changes are needed.
• Difficult to apply feedback from earlier stages to later stages

Agile project management is an iterative and incremental approach that emphasizes flexibility and customer collaboration

Advantages:

• Highly adaptable to change.
• Continuous feedback and improvement.
• Emphasis on short feedback cycle.
• Better alignment with customer needs.

Disadvantages:

• Can be challenging to manage without experienced team members.
• Less predictability in timelines and costs.
• Requires a cultural shift in the organization
• Collaboration can be demanding.
• Heavy involvement of customer.

Comparision Table

Aspect	Traditional Project Management	Agile Project Management
Approach	Linear and sequential	Iterative and incremental
Planning	Extensive upfront planning	Continuous planning
Flexibility	Low	High
Customer Involvement	Limited	High
Risk Management	Early Identification	Ongoing throughout the project
Deliverables	Deliverables at the end in a big bang approach	Frequent, small releases

 

refer to the below excellent article that delves into Agile project management in detail

https://www.atlassian.com/agile/project-management

__ Jimi Wikman

Unfortunately this is a common misconception that I am not sure where it comes from.

First you have to differentiate between continuous delivery and projects as they come from two very different budgets. Continuous deliveries are funded through the annual operational budget (OpEx) that is defined based on a product or service roadmap where you have licenses, salary and so on defining what value you are adding for the organization annually.

A project on the other hand is an investment that comes from one of the investment budgets (CapEx) in one of the portfolios. This is a temporary budget assigned based on value created as defined in a fixed scope, fixed timeline and through that a fixed cost. A project is measured against all other projects across the organization so ensure the project with the highest value is carried out.

A continuous delivery team can work with Agile if they want as they control their own budget and the Product Owner is held responsible for the spending on the annual budget.

A Project on the other hand have no use for Agile as it is fixed in all 3 directions. The main focus in a project is managing the project to make sure it is delivered in time and on budget. To do this you use Project Management and there is no Agile project management methodology available today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8NqP8RBYOM

--

Now that we know what a project is, let's talk about the processes. What we refer to as Waterfall is often depicted as a stairs kind of visual where each of the process steps are dropping down to the next. This is visually incorrect however and if you flatten that out you will see that waterfall follow a linear step by step process in a line.

Requirements-> Analysis->Design->Implementation->Testing->Deployment->Maintenance

The argument that Agile is iterative have always been false because regardless if you pick Scrum or Kanban, both are linear and incremental as both are processes. The difference between Scrum/Kanban and Waterfall is that the process steps are defined in waterfall and in Agile frameworks they are not mentioned as the focus is on the framework process. You still need the underlying process however and when you add that, then you will see that the processes are the same.

 

- Product Backlog - Requirements, Analysis
- Sprint Planning - Requirements, Analysis, design
- Sprint Backlog - Design
- Sprint - Development, Test
- Finished Work - Deployment, Maintenance
- Sprint Review - Team Management
- Sprint Demo - Requirement

 

Take any Scrum or Kanban iteration and extend it to 12 months, and you will have a sequential waterfall.

Take any Waterfall iteration and shorten it to 1-4 weeks, and you will have iterative Scrum.

It is all based on cadence, not the processes.

 

The Agile frameworks should only be used in OpEx situations where the team is in control of the work and the budget.

When dealing with a project the team have no control over the work or the budget, and they are forced to follow project management processes, which include strict control of changes and dependencies.

 

Use the right way of working based on the work you are doing.