What methodology would be best for this type of project and why?

Comparing Waterfall and Agile approaches

Now that you know more about some of the different approaches and frameworks associated with project management, let's compare specific aspects ofWaterfall(also commonly calledtraditional) andAgileapproaches.

Understanding the fundamentals ofand differences betweenthese common project management approaches can help you demonstrate your project management knowledge during an interview. It can also help you evaluate a project to determine the right approach when working on the job.

Waterfall and Agile are implemented in many different ways on many different projects, and some projects may use aspects of each. The chart below briefly describes and compares Waterfall and Agile approaches. You can use it as a quick reference tool, but be aware that in practice, the differences between these two approaches may not always be clearly defined.Waterfall and Agile Comparison

	Waterfall	Agile
Project manager's role	Project manager serves as an active leader by prioritizing and assigning tasks to team members.	Agile project manager (or Scrum Master) acts primarily as a facilitator, removing any barriers the team faces. Team shares more responsibility in managing their own work.
Scope	Project deliverables and plans are well-established and documented in the early stages of initiating and planning. Changes go through a formal change request process.	Planning happens in shorter iterations and focuses on delivering value quickly. Subsequent iterations are adjusted in response to feedback or unforeseen issues.
Schedule	Follows a mostly linear path through the initiating, planning, executing, and closing phases of the project.	Time is organized into phases called Sprints. Each Sprint has a defined duration, with a set list of deliverables planned at the start of the Sprint.
Cost	Costs are kept under control by careful estimation up front and close monitoring throughout the life cycle of the project.	Costs and schedule could change with each iteration.
Quality	Project manager makes plans and clearly defines criteria to measure quality at the beginning of the project.	Team solicits ongoing stakeholder input and user feedback by testing products in the field and regularly implementing improvements.
Communication	Project manager continually communicates progress toward milestones and other key indicators to stakeholders, ensuring that the project is on track to meet the customer's expectations.	Team is customer-focused, with consistent communication between users and the project team.
Stakeholders	Project manager continually manages and monitors stakeholder engagement to ensure the project is on track.	Team frequently provides deliverables to stakeholders throughout the project. Progress toward milestones is dependent upon stakeholder feedback.

Now that you better understand the differences between Waterfall and Agile project management approaches, you can use this understanding to determine which is most effective for your projects.

Lean and Six Sigma methodologies

Previously you learned about Agile and Waterfall project management approaches. Now, we will define some key concepts from Lean and Six Sigma methodologies. We will learn how these methodologies can be used to organize and manage your projects, and we will discuss which is the most effective for different kinds of projects.

Lean

Leanmethodology is often referred to as Lean Manufacturing because it originated in the manufacturing world. The main principle in Lean methodology is the removal of waste within an operation. By optimizing process steps and eliminating waste, only value is added at each phase of production.

Today, the Lean Manufacturing methodology recognizes eight types of waste within an operation: defects, excess processing, overproduction, waiting, inventory, transportation, motion, and non-utilized talent. In the manufacturing industry, these types of waste are often attributed to issues such as:

Lack of proper documentation

Lack of process standards

Not understanding the customers' needs

Lack of effective communication

Lack of process control

Inefficient process design

Failures of management

These same issues create waste in project management.

Implement Lean project management when you want to use limited resources, reduce waste, and streamline processes to gain maximum benefits.

You can achieve this by using the pillars of the Lean 5S quality tool. The term 5S refers to the five pillars that are required for good housekeeping: sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. Implementing the 5S method means cleaning up and organizing the workplace to achieve the smallest amount of wasted time and material. The 5S method includes these five steps:

1. Sort:Remove all items not needed for current production operations and leave only the bare essentials.

2. Set in order:Arrange needed items so that they are easy to use. Label items so that anyone can find them or put them away.

3. Shine:Keep everything in the correct place. Clean your workspace every day.

4. Standardize:Perform the process in the same way every time.

5. Sustain:Make a habit of maintaining correct procedures and instill this discipline in your team.

Within the Lean methodology, 5S helps you boost performance.

The final concept of Lean uses aKanbanscheduling system to manage production. The Kanban scheduling system, or Kanban board, is a visualization tool that enables you to optimize the flow of your team's work. It gives the team a visual display to identify what needs to be done and when. The Kanban board uses cards that are moved from left to right to show progress and help your team coordinate the work.

Kanban boards and 5S are core methods of the Lean methodology. They can help you successfully manage your project. Now let's analyze the Six Sigma method and learn when is the best time to use it.

Six Sigma

Six Sigmais a methodology used to reduce variations by ensuring that quality processes are followed every time. The term "Six Sigma" originates from statistics and generally means that items or processes should have 99.9996% quality.

The seven key principles of Six Sigma are:

1. Always focus on the customer.

2. Identify and understand how the work gets done. Understand how work really happens.

3. Make your processes flow smoothly.

4. Reduce waste and concentrate on value.

5. Stop defects by removing variation.

6. Involve and collaborate with your team.

7. Approach improvement activity in a systematic way.

Use this methodology to find aspects of the product or process that aremeasurablelike time, cost, or quantity. Then inspect that measurable item and reject any products that do not meet the Six Sigma standard. Any process that created unacceptable products has to be improved upon.

Now that you understand both Lean and Six Sigma, let's see how they come together to improve the performance of your project!

Lean Six Sigma

After both Lean and Six Sigma were put into practice, it was discovered that the two methodologies could be combined to increase benefits. The tools used in Lean, such as Kanban boards and 5S, build quality in processes from the beginning. Products developed using Lean methods are then inspected or tested using Six Sigma standards. The products that do not meet these standards are rejected.

The largest difference between these methodologies is that Lean streamlines processes while Six Sigma reduces variation in products by building in quality from the beginning and inspecting products to ensure quality standards are met. You may find that one of these two methodsor using them both togethercan improve the efficiency of your projects.

Case study: The significance of each project phase

The consequences of rushing through a project phase

It's Friday night when Jason, a project manager at a company that specializes in virtual reality software, receives an urgent call from his manager, Mateo. Mateo tells Jason that he needs a cost and timeline for a virtual reality training program for Flight Simulators, Inc., a company that does aircraft maintenance, by the end of the weekend.

Jason spends the weekend working through a proposal for Flight Simulators, Inc. He quickly throws together a proposal estimating that it will cost $200,000 and take six weeks to develop the course. This is the standard cost and time frame for developing training on his company's platform. He sends the proposal over to Flight Simulators, Inc. so that he can meet their deadline.

When Jason walks into the office on Monday morning, Mateo tells him that he got reprimanded for not following the company's process for building out a proposal and including the engineers in the process. The engineers take a look at the information presented by Flight Simulators, Inc. and realize that the company's software won't work with their platform. It will take six months to develop their platform to meet the needs of the organization's software and another six months to test the software and platform integration. The cost to develop and test this software will be over a million dollars.

This project has failed before it even started. There's no way to complete the request from Flight Simulators, Inc. without impacting the budget, quality, and timeline.

What should have happened?