Comparing Project Management Methodologies

This assignment delves into a comparative analysis of popular project management methodologies. It explores Waterfall, PMBOK, PRINCE2, and Agile, outlining their distinct characteristics, advantages, and disadvantages in diverse project contexts. The document utilizes figures and references to illustrate the application and impact of each methodology.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Project Management Methodologies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
PM Methodology and Management level Activity....................................................................4
Implementation Processes..........................................................................................................6
PMBOK Implementation Strategy (Organisation A).............................................................6
PRINCE2 Implementation Strategy (Organisation B)...........................................................6
Waterfall Implementation (Organisation C)..........................................................................7
Issues Related to the Implementation of Methodologies...........................................................8
Organization A.......................................................................................................................8
Organization B.......................................................................................................................8
Organization C.......................................................................................................................9
Measures to Mitigate Issues in Implementing Methodologies................................................10
Organization A.....................................................................................................................10
Organization B.....................................................................................................................10
Organization C.....................................................................................................................10
Benefits of Using PM Methodologies......................................................................................11
Organization A.....................................................................................................................11
Organization B.....................................................................................................................11
Organization C.....................................................................................................................12
Conclusion................................................................................................................................13
References:...............................................................................................................................14
Appendix:.................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
The aim of this report is put emphasis on the role and impact of the Project
Management (PM) methodologies implementation into the organization. These
methodologies can be variable based on the management and organizational structure of the
organization but have a common project management framework and language for the
organizations. This means one project management methodology is not applicable to feed all
the management needs of different organization and proper methodology should be chosen
with respect to the organizational and management structure of the organizations.
This report focuses on implementation of different methodologies for three different
industries with different structure as per the case study. Which methodology is suitable in
which organization and why has been explained in this report. This report also emphasis on
the challenges that the organization might face in implementing the methodologies into the
management system of the organization. The implementation process and related issues have
been proposed in this report including measures that could eliminate the raised issues.
PM Methodology and Management level Activity
Yes, implementing PM methodology needs a management level activity because of
the involvement of individuals in a team and managing that team considering the
organizational goal needs a management or leader or manager. PM methodology should have
risk reducing and failure avoiding capabilities along with core competencies within the team
of any organization. PM methodology can be defined as the combination of practices,
processes and methods those can provide better determination of planning, developing,
delivering and controlling the project by proper and regular implementation of this
throughout the whole project till its closure (Gollenia 2016). It is scientifically proved that
PM methodology is the best disciplined and systematic process that can be helpful in project

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designing, completion of the project, and execution of the project. Main purpose behind
implementing PM methodology is to provide control of the entire project in the hands of the
management in order to take better decision-making and problem solving actions that could
be helpful in enhancing the performance of the organization and producing more outputs
(Sandoval et al. 2017). Implementing methodologies also ensure the enhancement of
approaches, technologies, specific techniques and methods through a skeleton representation
of the whole processes (Craawford 2014). This skeleton will provide benefits in all the
aspects for the project manager to take decisions based on the regular auditing on the process
and achievement of those processes and finally deliver the project within the budget, accurate
specifications and in expected schedule.
Organisation A
Based on the industry and strength of the organization A, PMBOK methodology can
be implemented to enhance and regulate the productivity with positive outcomes. PMBOK is
a guide on dividing the whole management process into five levels and every level starts and
revolves around in a closed loop as stated in the figure 1 in appendix (Synder 2014).
Organisation B
This organization has the strength of 600 employees and belongs to building society
industry, which needs proper accessible and less complex methodology to enhance the
performance, which implies that PRINCE2 will be much efficient and effective methodology
for the organization management processes (Warner 2014).
Organisation C
Based on the case study, it has 600 members and belongs to technology service
industry, which could be a perfect condition to implement waterfall methodology into the
system. Waterfall methodology implementation needs large number of members’ roles and

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responsibilities in order to enhance the performance and productivity of the organization.
This methodology will help in gaining sequential or non-iterative design-process that will
play a vital role in the software development processes (Lei et al. 2017). A figure depicting
the waterfall methodology has been attached in the appendix, which can show the flow of the
process in downward manners.
Implementation Processes
PMBOK Implementation Strategy (Organisation A)
Implementation of the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge)
methodology into the existing system of the organization is a crucial element for the accurate
flow of rest of the processes. There are total five phases that can be combined for the
successful implementation of the PMBOK methodology (Nyder and Stackpole 2013). These
five phases are Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling, and monitoring and lastly,
Closing. Initiating phase can be considered as one of the most crucial process as this is the
very first step towards implementation of PMBOK into the organization. This process
consists of determination of aims and goals of the whole project, which will directly affect
the whole management system of the organization. After this only the second phase is being
executed that is planning, under which a proper plan is to be prepared on how the project is
going to be run and hat could be the relative consequences of those processes. Moving
forward, execution is the next phase under which gathered information is being executed and
taken into action on the entire project including budgeting. The third phase is monitoring and
controlling the implementations that are being executed after the first and the second phase
and compare it with the expected outputs and the projected goals and objectives (Rose 2013).
The final step has also the same priority as the above phases, which is the last step of this

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implementation that includes proper initials on the documentation and closure meeting with
the stakeholders.
PRINCE2 Implementation Strategy (Organisation B)
The first and dominant step in this methodology can be described as determining the
role and responsibilities of the individuals within the organization and for the implementation
of PRINCE2 successfully into the existing system of the organization. PRINCE2 is regarded
a process-based approach, which is beneficial in all the aspect for managing the management
system of the organization in effective manner (Cooke 2016). A mentor or coach i needed in
order to understand the objectives of the processes that have been sub-divided in order to
improve the management system of the organization. Concerning about the successful
implementation of the PRINCE2 within the organization, some objectives can be stated as:
firstly, the role of the coach or the mentor who is providing guidance about the objectives and
considerable activities during the implementation process (Kysinski and Miller 2016).
Another objective is that it is more than training employees, irrespective of that it is an
establishment of the best practices in the management system and enhance the overall
performance of the organization through motivating employees and improving project
governance.
Waterfall Implementation (Organisation C)
Waterfall is a project management methodology that is best suitable within the
organization with a large strength as it needs more members into the management system
with specific roles and responsibilities. A diagram explaining the processes that are being
incorporated in this methodology is stated in the appendix in which it can be seen that
progress is being made in downwards manner (Saltz, Hackman and Shamshurin 2017).
Waterfall methodology has a hierarchical structure of phases and teams are being
accommodated according to the structure of the processes, which are based on principles.

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These processes as stated consist of phases, which include firstly, collection of information in
the documentation form, which is comprised of demand and needs of the stakeholders and
executing those processes in different stages. Each phases or processes in this methodology
are interlinked to each other and next phase can only be started if the previous phase is
completed (McDermott 2016). Attentiveness is the most important objective in the
implementation of this methodology in order to avoid and eliminate bugs that might cause
improper functionality to the next phases.
Issues Related to the Methodologies
Organization A
Following are the issues related to the PMBOK implementation into the system of the
organization A:
Issue related with the implementation of the PMBOK is that it cannot define output
with precision, neither input nor performance criteria. This topic can be better explainable by
an example: qualitative analysis proposed in this methodology can identify relative impact,
but it is incapable of explaining 0.80 impacts, which arises during big budgets.
Secondly, the PMBOK is neither applicable for developing guidance documents nor
user-friendly towards the implementation of this methodology within the system in consistent
and precise manner. PM Methodologies should be able to deal with the iterative builds
however, the PMBOK methodology is capable of laying out work flows but only single-pass
is being explained within the whole guide presented by PMI (Conchir 2014).
Third issue can be stated as it lacks in defining the role of the individual and their
respective responsibilities during the management and the process that have been guided in
the PMI. A PM methodology should clearly define the responsibilities and roles of the
individual that are or going to be involved in the management system under the stated phases.

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Organization B
Following are the issues related with the implementation of PRINCE2 within the existing
system of the organization B:
Heavy weight: This implementation can be said as heavy weight as it mainly focuses
on the heavy documentation process related to the planning execution and closure, which are
much time consuming than others.
Change Management: PRINCE2 can be stated as a procedure-oriented methodology
that stated that in the middle of the project’s development new changes cannot be made or
accepted, which is a concerning issue for any of the organization (Tomanek and Juricek
2015).
Motivation: PRINCE2 methodology lacks in motivating the employees or the
stakeholders to implement this methodology into the system. Motivation among the
employees and other stakeholders are the most important aspect for the development of any
organization and eliminating this from the whole system may lead to serious causes or
hamper the performance of the organization by several ways.
Poor Risk Management: PRINCE2 also lacks in providing better and accurate risk
management system. Identifying and mitigating the risks that can affect the project and the
organizational performance is a better way to enhance the performance and output of any
organization and lacking in this aspect could led to the failure of the project and closure to the
organization.
Organization C
Waterfall implementation into the system of the organization C has following issues:

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Customers or the organization in real do not know what they want at the up-front and
customers that could be the issue in the implementation of waterfall methodology. In
waterfall PM methodology the offered up-front requirements design is neither suitable nor
much realistic for different organizations in this real world. It has also uncertain nature of
cost estimation and scheduling, costing and requirements of the customers. Next issue is
related to the uncertain nature of estimating time, costs, and customer needs with much less
efficiency in accuracy as the models that has been proposed in the methodology is extremely
difficult and complex for taking in account in the real world. Implicit model assumption can
be stated as the another issue in implementing this methodology into the system as these
models can look very feasible in the beginning but models often turn into expensive or
difficult in the real world (Pederson 2013). This might lead the manager to redesign the
whole project or keep modifying the present model. Other issues that can be taken into
account can also direct towards the fact that “the waterfall model implies a clear division of
labour between, say, ‘designers’, ‘programmers’ and ‘testers’” .Waterfall methodology and
its divisions or sub-divisions are not much efficient for the software sector organizations.
Measures to Mitigate Issues in Implementing Methodologies
Organization A
The PMI guided PMBOK is designed in a way that it standardizes the activities within
the phases, besides this focus should be provided on assigning roles and responsibilities of
the specific individual within the organization. Emphasis should be provided in upgrading the
quantitative analysis calculation that could be applicable and accurate for the high budget
projects or the plan (Stackpole 2013). Areas and phases should be made wider in order to
make this methodology to be more efficient in big enterprises and make this successful

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implementation with the existing system of the organization with large strength and bigger
market.
Organization B
It can be seen that the PRINCE2 PM Methodology is much complex in implementing
it within the organization. Risk management should focus all the hidden bugs and consider all
the stakeholders in order to enhance the performance of the organization with its complete
efficiency after being implemented within the system. As stated above there is not any
process related to the motivation; implementing motivational and awareness program into its
processes can be a better approach for mitigating the issues (Saad et al. 2014).
Organization C
Processes or phases should be divided as per the organizational sector and offering the
process according to the up-front needs of the organization. Every step are inter-related to
each other, which implies in recommending that isolating each process could be a better
aspect for making this implementation more efficient and successful (Rahmanian 2014). This
will also help in detecting the bugs and issues in any phase at any time and could be
eliminated at that time, which will in result increase the output and enhance the performance
of the organization.
Benefits of Using PM Methodologies
Organization A
Benefits of implementing PMBOK methodology can be listed as:
Easy guide to Project Management Steps: It provides easier way to play the roles of
the individuals with responsibility.

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PMBOK Provides customization: Monitoring is far better in this methodology than
others, which can be helpful in determining which factor and what are the beneficial elements
of the enhancement of organization’s performance. PMBOK provides flexibility in
customizing and standardizing the process that are involved during the implementation
process.
Standardization of the Project Management Processes: Companies are being pushed
towards standardizing the processes and activities by the PMBOK PM Methodology. It can
also help in analysing those activities which were being conducted during previous phases of
management.
Organization B
Benefits of the implementation of PRINCE2 can be listed as:
Communication: PRINCE2 focuses on the communication between the team
members, management and other stakeholders.
Reliable: PRINCE2 is much more reliable than any other methodologies as it focuses
on maintaining motivated and focused workforce that could be helpful in achieving the goals
and objectives of the organization.
Plan oriented: PRINCE2 mainly focuses and executed on the planning made in the
earlier phase, which makes it as a plan-oriented approach.
Organization C
Following are the benefits of implementing Waterfall methodology:
Disciplinary: Stage development cycle introduced in the waterfall implementation can
be helpful in achieving discipline within the organization (Darnall and Russell 2015).

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Scheduled: It can be helpful in reducing the risks of schedule slippage and met the
requirements of the customers.
Design-oriented: Quality can be improved by getting the design and requirements out
of the way (Hobbs 2015).
Conclusion
Based on the above report it can be concluded that Project Management Methodology
can play a vital and important role in enhancing the performance of the organization through
subdividing the whole management system into small groups. Three project management
methodologies have been introduced in this report, which were perfect according to the
organizational specifications. There are certain problems and issues related to these
implementations within the existing system of the organizations, which could be eliminated
by certain modifications and contributions of each employee. This report also focuses on the
measures that could mitigate the raised issues. It can also be recommended that besides of all
the complexities and issues PRINCE2 methodology can be a better approach for enhancing
the performance of the organizations.

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References:
Conchir, D., 2014. Overview of the PMBOK Guide: Paving the Way for PMP Certification.
Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated.
Cooke, J.L., 2016. PRINCE2 Agile: an implementation pocket guide: step-by-step advice for
every project type.
Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. CRC Press.
Darnall, D.M. and Russell, W., 2015. Understanding Project Management A Three
Dimensional Model for Understanding Projects and the Implications for Developing a Project
Management Plan.
Gollenia, L.A., 2016. Business transformation management methodology. Routledge.
Hobbs, B., 2015. 2 THE SPECIFICS OF PROJECT CONTEXTS. The Psychology and
Management of Project Teams.
Krysiński, M. and Miller, P., 2016. The Role of Conflict in Project Management in the
PRINCE2 Methodology. Ekonomika i Organizacja Przedsiębiorstwa, (6), pp.3-12.
Lei, H., Ganjeizadeh, F., Jayachandran, P.K. and Ozcan, P., 2017. A statistical analysis of the
effects of Scrum and Kanban on software development projects. Robotics and Computer-
Integrated Manufacturing, 43, pp.59-67.
McDermott, K.A., 2016. A mixed methods study: Evaluating the relationship of project
manager competencies and it project management methodologies (Doctoral dissertation,
Purdue University).
Pedersen, M., 2013. A quantitative examination of critical success factors comparing agile
and waterfall project management methodologies (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).

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Rahmanian, M., 2014. A comparative study on hybrid IT project management. International
Journal of Computer and Information Technology, 3(05), pp.1096-1099.
Rose, K.H., 2013. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®
Guide)—Fifth Edition. Project management journal, 44(3).
Saad, S., Ibrahim, A., Asma, O., Khan, M.S. and Akhter, J., 2014. PRINCE2 MEthodology:
AN INNovAtIvE WAy foR IMPRovINg PERfoRMANCE of MAlAysIAN AutoMotIvE
INdustRy. The Journal of Technology Management and Technopreneurship (JTMT), 1(1).
Saltz, J., Heckman, R. and Shamshurin, I., 2017. EXPLORING HOW DIFFERENT
PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES IMPACT DATA SCIENCE STUDENTS.
Sandoval-Almazán, R., Luna-Reyes, L.F., Luna-Reyes, D.E., Gil-Garcia, J.R., Puron-Cid, G.
and Picazo-Vela, S., 2017. Managing Information Technology Development Projects. In
Building Digital Government Strategies (pp. 65-77). Springer, Cham.
Snyder, C.S. and Stackpole, C.S., 2013. A User's Manual to the PMBOK Guide. John Wiley
& Sons.
Snyder, C.S., 2014. A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®)
Guide. Project Management Institute.
Stackpole, C.S., 2013. A User's Manual to the PMBOK Guide. John Wiley & Sons.
Tomanek, M. and Juricek, J., 2015. Project risk management model based on PRINCE2 and
SCRUM frameworks. arXiv preprint arXiv:1502.03595.
Warner, J., 2014. PRINCE2 60 Success Secrets-60 Most Asked Questions On PRINCE2-What
You Need To Know. Emereo Publishing.

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Analysis
Designing
Maintenance
Coding
Testing
Implementation
Translates
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Appendix:
Figure 1: Presentation of methodology in Project Management structure
(Source: Created by Author)
Figure 2: Waterfall PM Methodology
(Source: Created by Author)

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Figure 3: PMBOK PM Methodology
(Source: Created by Author)
Figure 4: PRINCE2 PM Methodology
(Source: Created by Author)