Project Management Methodologies: Definition, Role, Types, and Comparison

This article discusses project management methodologies, their definition, role, and types such as PMBOK, PRINCE2, SDLC, Waterfall, and Agile. It also compares Agile and Waterfall models and their relation with the project life cycle.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Project Management Methodologies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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1. (a) Definition of Methodology
The management of project management is mainly defined as a model, which are
managed by different project managers that are mainly employed for the purpose of design,
implementation, planning and thus the achievement of the objectives of the concerned project
(Flick, 2015). A manager makes use of the methodology of project management in order to
achieve certain goals for planning certain results with the help of a certain defined schedule
and within a proposed budget. There are various collections of methodologies in order to help
managers within every stage of the project from the starting of the project and till the
completion of the project. The proper use of project management methodology would be easy
to guide throughout the completion of the project. The methodology of project management
is a way of description of system within the concerned project. Some projects are able to get
completed with the help of proper form of methodologies.
(b) Role of Methodology in Project Management
The main aim of the different methodologies within project management would be to
complete the necessary tasks, which would require for the earlier project design. The various
methodologies within the project specify the various form of tasks that would be undertaken.
It would also specify the time of delivery of the project for maximizing the utilisation of
resources and time (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). These methodologies would be helpful for
outlining the tasks, which have to be completed firstly with the idea in mind about the
subsequent tasks that would mainly depend upon the completion of previous tasks. The
methodologies, which are used within the managements of projects would be helpful for
defining the scope of the entire project.

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2. (a) Different Project Management Methodologies and Processes
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) – The PMBOK is defined as
the complete collection of the best form of practices of project, processes, terminologies and
guidelines that would be majorly accepted as the finest standards within the project
management industry. The guide of PMBOK would overlap with general management in
regards with planning, organising, execution and staffing based in the control of various
operations within the organisation (Burke, 2013).
PRINCE2 – The abbreviation of PRINCE2 is Projects IN Controlled Environments.
It is a methodology based on processes for the effective management of different processes.
The structured form of project management is defined as the ordering of the project at
different steps in a logical progression for organising the project.
SDLC – The Software Development Life Cycle is defined as the application
development life cycle. It is a specific term that is primarily used within the various
information systems, systems engineering and within the mechanism of software engineering
in order to describe the process for planning, creating, testing and deployment of the
information system.
Waterfall – This model is also referred as the linear-sequential life cycle model. In
this form of model of software development, each of the phases should be completed before
progressing to the next steps.
Agile – The Agile methodology is a combination of the incremental and iterative
process models with the main focus on the adaptability of processes and satisfaction of
customers with fast delivery of working on the software product (Abrahamsson, 2017).
(b) Comparison of Two Methodologies
Similarities between Agile and Waterfall Model

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The Agile Model is able to propose the separation of the process of development
within the project lifecycle. The Waterfall Model would be also able to divide the process
into several different phases.
Differences between Agile and Waterfall Model
The methodology of Agile would be able to provide a flexible approach to the project
development. The Waterfall Model would be able to be structured within the methodology of
the development of software (Stoica, Mircea & Ghilic-Micu, 2013).
3. Relation of the Methodologies with Project Life Cycle (PLC)
The Agile Methodology makes use of the iterative process without using the
sequential based process. The requirements within the project is changing every day and thus
flexible form of approaches are extremely necessary for the project life cycle. The approach
of Agile Methodology is able to grip the major changes that are occurring within the projects
with the advancements within the newest form of technologies. Hence the team of software
development would need to divide the lengthy requirements of the project into several small
segments, build them and thus test the various phases of the segments. This would be a major
help for the quick development of the software.
The Waterfall Model focusses on the logical based progression of the several steps
during the development of the software during the entire project life cycle. The developers
who are responsible for the successful completion of the project mainly focus on the
successful iteration of the previous step in order to move to the next step. Hence, the chances
of errors gets reduced. Thus the project outcomes should be properly set before the initiation
of the project (Pedersen, 2013).

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Reference
Abrahamsson, P., Salo, O., Ronkainen, J., & Warsta, J. (2017). Agile software development
methods: Review and analysis. arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.08439.
Burke, R. (2013). Project management: planning and control techniques. New Jersey, USA.
Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research
project. Sage.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Pedersen, M. (2013). A quantitative examination of critical success factors comparing agile
and waterfall project management methodologies (Doctoral dissertation, Capella
University).
Stoica, M., Mircea, M., & Ghilic-Micu, B. (2013). Software Development: Agile vs.
Traditional. Informatica Economica, 17(4).