What is the difference between project management and traditional management?

Over the course of several years, different project management methodologies and frameworks have been developed for different business cases. In project management, it is crucial to understand your budget, scope of the project, and team dynamics and pick the right methodology to ensure that your projects are heading in the right direction.

When it comes to implementing an effective project management style, the two major categories professionals often feel conflicted about are the Agile and traditional project management. The ‘Traditional vs Agile project management’ debate is not a recent one and both approaches come with their own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Both these frameworks come with their own set of principles, processes, and best practices. What you choose entirely depends on your project and your team’s needs.
Let’s take a detailed look at both of these and see how to find the one that suits your style best.

What’s the difference between Traditional (Waterfall) and Agile Project Management?

In traditional project management, projects are clearly defined beforehand and it focuses on having formal processes and extensive documentation, with minimum customer involvement.

On the other hand, in the agile methodology, projects are divided into smaller tasks with an interactive input system of continuous delivery and feedback to keep the customer involved in the whole process.

Introduction to Agile Project Management Methodology

Agile project management (APM), a fairly recent and flexible approach to project management, is the talk of the town nowadays. According to the pulse of the profession 2017 survey, 71% of organizations used an agile approach for their projects and one of the main reasons behind this is the adaptability of Agile.

It is an iterative approach to project management that primarily focuses on customer feedback, flexibility and effective collaboration between team members. Agile allows project teams to be more flexible and ensure that the final product is according to the customer’s standards.

The agile framework divides the project into smaller time-boxed sprints that commonly last for 2 weeks. These sprints assist project teams in flexibly dealing with changes and developments. Since customer collaboration is an extremely important element of the APM framework, that’s why regular updates are sent to customers and their feedback is immediately taken on board.

Advantages of using the Agile Methodology

There are a number of reasons why project management professionals prefer Agile methodology to traditional frameworks.

Some of them are discussed below:

Enhanced Flexibility

When Agile and Traditional project management are compared, Agile is ‘hands down’ more flexible. Since the entire project is divided into smaller sprints, introducing changes midway gets extremely easy.

Transparency

Contrary to the traditional approach, the whole team knows about the progress of the project in Agile. In this approach, the whole team decides the plan together and shares the ownership of the project which improves project transparency. Similarly, customers are also involved throughout the project and their feedback is taken into account for an acceptable final product.

Effective Collaboration

All Agile methodologies encourage teams to share information on a regular basis. There is no compartmentalization of information and every single member’s opinion is considered without regard to the position they hold in the company.

For example, in the case of Scrum project management, the most popular Agile methodology, teams have daily ‘stand-up’ meetings and sprint planning where the team discusses their progress, problems, and plans for the day.

Efficient Problem Solving

Since Agile follows an ‘all hands on deck’ approach; the process of solving problems becomes easier and more efficient. Team members also have the autonomy to make trivial changes without getting approval from the project manager which saves a lot of time and stimulates progress.

Reduced Complexities

Popular Agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban methodology require the division of the entire project into much smaller and achievable tasks. This allows the continuous development of the project while ensuring quality.

In the case of the traditional approach, sudden changes or problems sometimes take the team back to ‘square one’.This results in the wastage of both time and money. In 2017 alone, the U.S government lost about $32 billion in failed IT projects due to this reason.

Hybrid Methodology: Combining Agile and Traditional

Hybrid project management is the practice of blending both agile and traditional methodology together in order to create a custom method. This helps teams to use their full potential and plan before starting a project. There are several factors that can influence the performance of a project management approach in an organization.

For example, Agile is proven to be ineffective in traditional organizations where the management is reluctant to let go of control and allow team members to make a decision. However, modern software development teams prefer Agile methodology.

KPMG states that by 2020, Agile projects will outnumber traditional projects in all sectors of Belgium and the Netherlands.

Here’s a handy chart that will help you pick the right Project Management Methodology.

What’s right for you?

The Agile framework is more aligned with the ever-changing requirements of the modern industrial environment. However, there are certain instances where the traditional approach can be a better choice.

Consider factors like the nature of your project, existing organizational processes, budget, and the project timeline. There are many project management tools available that can implement any of the methodologies mentioned above. By picking the right framework even before you begin your projects sets you up for success, right from the start.

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