What is a project management methodology?

A project management methodology is a collection of regulations and practices that instruct you in managing your assignments to guarantee their performance. It's a framework that helps you manage your project in the best way possible. Project management is so crucial to organizations and teams. Opting for a suitable methodology help to make sure you're correctly mapping your project management methodology to your team type, project, organization, and goals to be effective.

How to choose a project management methodology?

Many factors will impact which project management methodology suits your project, team, and organization. Following are the steps that help you decide which method to opt for. 

• Cost and budget: Deciding on cost and budget helps you determine the correct method for your project. 
• Team size: How many individuals are involved? How many stakeholders? Is your team relatively compact and self-organizing, or larger, requiring more strict delegation? Making the right team of people is crucial for every project. 
• Ability to take risks: Depending on the project, whether massive, requires more preciseness or a small one that gives room to play around. 
• Flexibility: Is there room for the project's scope to change during the process? 
• Timeline: How much time is assigned to give the brief? Do you need a quick turnaround, or is it more critical to have a beautifully finished result, no matter how long it takes?
• Client/stakeholder Involvement: How involved does the client/stakeholder need — or want — to be in the procedure? How active do you need — or want — them to be?

Project Management Methodlogies

Waterfall methodology

The Waterfall method is a classic approach to project management. In it, duties and phases are completed in a linear, sequential manner, and each stage of the project must be met before the next begins.

The phases of Waterfall project management :

• Requirements
• Analysis
• Design
• Construction
• Testing
• Deployment & maintenance

Progress courses in one direction, like a natural waterfall.

Also, like a natural waterfall, though, this can quickly get difficult. Since everything is mapped out initially, there's a lot of space for the mistake if anticipations don't fit reality. And there's no going back to a prior stage once it's completed. 

Use this management methodology if:

• The end goal of your project is clearly defined — and is not changing or fluctuating. 
• The stakeholders understand precisely what they desire 
• Your task is consistent and predictable 
• You're working in a regulated enterprise that requires vast project tracking or documentation.
• You might need to bring new people into the project midway and quickly get them up to speed.

 Agile methodology

The agile project management methodology arises from growing dissatisfaction with the linear approach of traditional project management methodologies.

Agile project management has sparked several specific sub-frameworks and methodologies, such as Scrum, kanban, and lean. The essential principles of agile project management methodologies are:

• It's collaborative.
• It's quick.
• It's open to data-driven change.

As such, agile project management methodologies usually involve short stages of work with periodic testing, reassessment, and adaptation throughout. In many agile methods, all work is counted to a backlog that teams can work through in each phase or cycle, with project managers or product owners prioritizing the backlog. Hence, teams understand what to focus on foremost.

Use this management methodology if:

• Your project is susceptible to change.
• You're not sure at the beginning what the solution will look like.
• It would help if you worked quickly, and it's more important that you see quick progress than perfect results.
• Your stakeholders or client requirements (or wants) to be included at every step.

Scrum methodology

A scrum is a form of agile project management, and you can think of it more like a framework than as a project management methodology in itself.

With Scrum, work is divided into short cycles known as "sprints," which usually stay about 1-2 weeks. Work is accepted from the backlog for each sprint iteration,

A Scrum Master guides small teams for the duration of the sprint. They examine their implementation in a "sprint retrospective" and make any necessary changes before starting the next sprint.

Use this management methodology if:

• You're aiming for constant improvement.

Kanban methodology

Kanban is another mode within agile project management.

Evolving from the manufacturing industry, the term "kanban" has denoted a framework in which tasks are visually represented as they progress through columns on a kanban board. 

Kanban is great for giving everyone a quick visual overview of where each piece of work stands at any provided time. It also allows you to see where blockages are at risk of forming — if you witness one of your queues getting clogged, you'll know that that's a stage of your process that needs to be discussed.

When used as part of an agile project management methodology, performance of work in progress (WIP) limits is also standard. Work in progress limits the number of tasks in play at any time, indicating that you can only maintain a certain number of assignments in each column. 

This stops your team from extending their energy on too many duties and instead guarantees that they can work more constructively by concentrating on per task separately.

Use this management methodology if:

• You want a visual representation of your project's progress.
• You want at-a-glance status updates.
• You want to promote utilizing WIP boundaries so your team can stay attentive.
• You choose to operate on a constant "force" basis.

Scrumban methodology

Scrumban is a hybrid agile project management methodology with Scrum's nose and kanban's eyes.

The main advantage of scrumban as a method is that instead of deciding which task from the backlog to work on in each sprint at the outset, scrumban allows teams to continuously "pull" from the backlog established on their capability.

And utilizing work in improvement limits during your sprint cycle, you can keep a constant flow while still including project planning, reviews, and retrospectives.

Use this management methodology if:

• You want to use a combination of two methods. 

Lean methodology

Lean is another project management methodology that has its roots in manufacturing. It's all about using lean principles to maximize value and minimize waste in your project management methods.

While this referred initially to reducing bodily waste in the manufacturing process, it now refers to other wasteful practices in the project management process. These are 3Ms: Muda, mura, and muri.

Muda (wastefulness) consumes resources without adding value to the customer.

Mura (unevenness) occurs when you have overproduction in one area that throws all of your other sites out of whack, leaving you with too much inventory (wasteful!) or inefficient processes (also extravagant!).

Muri (overburden) occurs when there is too much strain on resources such as equipment and people, which can often result in breakdowns in machines and humans.

Using the fundamental principles of lean, a project manager can reduce these types of waste to create more efficient workflows.

Use this management methodology if:

• You're looking for principles that will help you cut the fat and optimize your flow.
• You're always trying to enhance and add importance to the customer.
• You want to decrease costs ultimately.

Six Sigma

Six Sigma is a method for improving processes, emphasizing consistency in output and impeccable quality.

A few different flavors are available, such as Lean Six Sigma and Agile Sigma. Still, ultimately Six Sigma is a business methodology that aims to eliminate defects and reduce variation by using its defined methods.

Six Sigma methods can optimize and improve existing processes or create new ones.

To enhance business processes, you can utilize the Six Sigma DMAIC methodology, which stands for the stages in the project methodology: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.

To create new procedures or effects, you can utilize the Six Sigma DMADV process: Define, Measure, Analyze, Design, Verify.

Six Sigma methods can be applied alongside many other project management methodologies, like Lean and Agile, as a set of principles and procedures rather than a project management methodology.

Use this management methodology if:

You're examining for a set of principles and perspectives you can get with you to virtually every assignment and association.

Selecting the correct project management methodology

The correct project management methodology can advance your project and support the project manager in bringing the best out of each team.

Whether you prefer the agile methods favored in IT project management or the more traditional waterfall project management and critical path methodology used in construction and manufacturing, every team has a project management methodology. No matter which strategy you choose, you need a collaborative, flexible, and easy-to-use assignment managing tool to sustain you. Selecting a team managing software that supports multiple methodologies — i.e., that doesn't seal you into one method or way of using it — like Teamwork means that every team in your organization has the freedom to work the way that works for them without surrendering features or complexity. No matter how you like to work, Teamwork helps your team replicate their best practices, provide observation and character, and continually enhance their processes.