Software engineering processes include business analysis, requirement stipulation, design, programming, and testing in addition to project management. It has been a hotly debated subject for years. Only about half of the organizations (53 percent) are fully aware of the significance of these practices even now, as project management techniques advance.
Regardless of the industry, project management is essential to a business' effectiveness and ultimate success. In actuality, businesses that employ tried-and-true project management techniques waste 28 percent less cash and carry out initiatives that are 2.5 times more successful.
Project management professionals define a successful project as not only the one that is completed on time and within budget but also as the one that delivers expected benefits.
Project Management Phases
Regardless of the scope, any project should follow a sequence of actions to be controlled and managed. According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), a typical project management process includes the following phases:
1. initiation,
2. planning,
3. execution,
4. performance/monitoring, and
5. project close.
Used as a roadmap to accomplish specific tasks, these phases define the project management lifecycle.
Yet, this structure is too general. A project usually has a number of internal stages within each phase. They can vary greatly depending on the scope of work, the team, the industry, and the project itself.
In attempts to find a universal approach to managing any project, humanity has developed a significant number of PM techniques and methodologies.
Traditional Project Management Methodologies
Based on the above-described classic framework, traditional methodologies take a step-by-step approach to the project execution. Thus, the project goes through the initiation, planning, execution, monitoring straight to its closure in consecutive stages.
Often called linear, this approach includes a number of internal phases that are sequential and executed in chronological order. Applied most commonly within the construction or manufacturing industry, where little or no changes are required at every stage, traditional project management has found its application in software engineering as well.
Known as the Waterfall model, it has been a dominant software development methodology since the early 1970s, when formally described by Winston W. Royce: “There are two essential steps common to all computer program developments, regardless of size or complexity. There is first an analysis step, followed second by a coding step … This sort of very simple implementation concept is in fact all that is required if the effort is sufficiently small and if the final product is to be operated by those who built it – as is typically done with computer programs for internal use.”
The Waterfall model has a strong emphasis on planning and specifications development, which takes up to 40 percent of the project time and budget. Another basic principle of this approach is the strict order of the project phases. A new project stage does not begin until the previous one is finished.
The method works well for clearly defined projects with a single deliverable and fixed deadline. The Waterfall approach requires thorough planning, extensive project documentation, and tight control over the development process. In theory, this should lead to on-time, on-budget delivery, low project risks, and predictable final results.
However, when applied to the actual software engineering process, the Waterfall method tends to be slow, costly, and inflexible due to numerous restrictions. In many cases, its inability to adjust the product to the evolving market requirements often results in a huge waste of resources and the eventual project failure.
Agile Project Management Philosophy
As opposed to a traditional approach, the Agile project management philosophy has been introduced as an attempt to make software engineering more flexible and efficient. It has quickly become the industry standard for project management. It is estimated that about 95 percent of organizations have adopted Agile in one form or another. At the same time, there’s a lot of work left to make the practice mature.
The history of Agile can be traced back to 1957: At that time Bernie Dimsdale, John von Neumann, Herb Jacobs, and Gerald Weinberg were using incremental development techniques (which are now known as Agile), building software for IBM and Motorola. Although, not knowing how to classify the approach they were practicing, they realized clearly that it was different from Waterfall in many ways.
However, the modern-day Agile approach was officially introduced in 2001, when a group of 17 software development professionals met to discuss alternative project management methodologies. Having a clear vision of the flexible, lightweight, and team-oriented software development approach, they mapped it out in the Manifesto for Agile Software Development.
Aimed at “uncovering better ways of developing software,” the Manifesto clearly specifies the fundamental principles of the new approach:
“Through this work we have come to value:
Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan.”
Complemented with the Twelve Principles of Agile Software, the philosophy has come to be a universal and efficient new way of managing projects.
Agile methodologies take an iterative approach to software development. Unlike a straightforward linear Waterfall model, Agile projects consist of a number of smaller cycles – Sprints. Each one of them is a project in miniature: it has a backlog and consists of design, implementation, testing, and deployment stages within the pre-defined scope of work.
At the end of each Sprint, a potentially shippable product increment is delivered. Thus, with every iteration new features are added to the product, resulting in gradual project growth. With the features being validated early in the development, the chances of delivering a potentially failed product are significantly lower. Let’s summarize the main Agile aspects:
Flexibility: The scope of work may change according to new requirements.
Work breakdown: The project consists of small cycles (known as Sprints in Scrum).
Value of teamwork: The team members work closely together and have a clear vision of their responsibilities.
Iterative improvements: There is frequent reassessment of the work done within a cycle to make the final product better.
Cooperation with a client: A customer is closely engaged in the development and can change the requirements or accept the team’s suggestions.
According to the 14th annual state of Agile research, respondents who have adopted the Agile approach mention the following benefits:
The ability to manage the changing priorities (70 percent);
Increased team productivity through daily task allocation (58 percent);
Better project visibility due to the simple planning system (65 percent).
Companies still prioritize flexibility and rapid turnaround as key advantages Agile provides.
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