Project Management Methodologies: Unified Process vs. Waterfall

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report compares Unified Process and Waterfall project management methodologies.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Project Management Methodologies
Student Name:
Student Id:

1PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Table of Contents
1. Define what a methodology is and the role it serves in project management........................2
2. Compare and contrast Unified Process and Waterfall Methodology, analysing the
similarities and disimilarities between them..............................................................................2
3. Identifying how chosen methodologies relate to the project life cycle (PLC).......................3
Unified Process (Object Oriented Approach)........................................................................3
Waterfall Methodology..........................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................6

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
1. Explaining the project methodology and its role in Project Management
The methodology is referred to a system of rules or principles and methods used for a
definite study or activity. It is a systematized, theoretical survey of procedures applied to
study or research field. It consists of the theoretical analysis of methods along with a branch
of knowledge. Project Methodology is such a model used for analysing requirements,
designing, planning, and implementing a project to meet all the project benefits (Uhl &
Gollenia, 2016). There are various types of project methodologies but what methodology is to
be chosen depends on the project team, project-type and scope of the project. List of well-
known project methodologies are agile, PRINCE2, Unified Process, Waterfall, Scrum, XP.
Role of Project Management Methodology:
Project methodology clarifies roles and expected behaviours of different projects and
thus, enable effective decision making.
Reusing common set of processes repeatedly those are used over and over again for
all projects speeds up the project phase and save money.
Project scope is controlled – An effective method helps in controlling the scope of the
project.
A project management methodology helps ensures that client knows about the
expectation and project team agree with the project deliverables.
The risk management practices of a project management methodology will ensure
better problem resolution.
Clear project definition with cost estimation and track and keep costs under control
(de Carvalho, Patah & de Souza Bido, 2015).
Complex projects are more quickly identified by project management methodology.
2. Compare and contrast Unified Process and Waterfall Methodology,
analysing the similarities and dissimilarities between them.
Waterfall methodology and Object-Oriented methodology in Unified Process varies in
all aspects (Requirement Analysis, Design, Implementation, and Testing) but also has
similarity as follows:
In Waterfall methodology, the disciples are done sequentially. Like design is done
after requirements are finalised and coding starts after design. In the Unified Process, the
different stages have been analysed such as Object-Oriented analysis, Use-case development,
Object-Oriented coding, wireframe design, debugging, testing, etc(Brindha & Vijayakumar,
2015).

3PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Another comparison between the two is Unified Process pushed the concept of Visual
Models (especially, UML) in the form of deliverable artefacts which described the
requirements, design (and in some cases coding), while Waterfall artefacts were typically
very document-heavy (e.g. IEEE processes).
Unified Process is capable of resolving project risks related to clients Requirements.
Waterfall Methodology gives uncertainty and risks.
In Waterfall methodology, different phases are processes and completed one after
another, and there is no chance for going back once requirements are finalised and no change
is acceptable. In the Unified Process, you can reuse codes as it involves the concept of
objects.
3. Identifying how chosen methodologies relate to the project life cycle
(PLC)
Unified Process (Object Oriented Approach)
Object-Oriented Analysis is a procedure of analysing user requirements. The main
objective of Object-Oriented Analysis is generally used to understand the problem domain in
project. Apart from that, it is also used to realise the responsibility of a system and user’s
interaction with the system. It consists of the following steps: identifying actors, developing
model for business process with UML Activity diagram, developing use-case, developing
interaction diagrams and identifying classes.
Object-Oriented Design is related to producing designs keeping track of requirements.
This process consists of: class design, attributes, methods, associations, design axioms, user-
interface, and access layer.

4PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Figure: Object-Oriented Approach in the Unified Process
(Source: Dennis, Wixom & Tegarden, 2015)
Using use-case as a modelling technique for requirement definition is the current
choice for most developers. Through use case diagrams you can easily design most of the
user requirements. It shows a non-sequential representation of processes and is the primary
means of achieving system functionality from a user-perspective.
Iteration must continue until attaining system satisfaction. During the iterative
process, prototypes will be incremented and added to the actual application. Test scenarios
are related to usage scenarios that are why use case drives the testing which measures the
software functionality.
Waterfall Methodology
The first stage of Waterfall methodology deals with requirement gathering and
documentation. You can gather comprehensive information in various ways. This stage is for
defining project requirements and distribution of requirement documents among team-
members (Isaias & Issa, 2015).
After the requirements are being finalised, the team works on designing the system.
The team establishes the format of hardware requirements and programming, but no coding
happens in this phase.

5PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
Figure: Waterfall methodology
(Source: Isaias & Issa, 2015)
The next stage is Implementation where coding takes place. Developers collect
information from previous stages and compose a functional product. They use codes in small
pieces and integrate them either at the end of this phase or at the beginning of the next stage.
Once the product is complete, it is the time for the team to submit the deliverables to
their respective users.
Some issues may arise once the product is delivered and is used by the clients. The
team works on modification and updation and maintain product quality.

6PROJECT MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGIES
References
Brindha, J., & Vijayakumar, V. (2015). Analytical comparison of waterfall model and object-
oriented methodology in software engineering. Advances in Natural and Applied
Sciences, 9(12), 7-11.
de Carvalho, M. M., Patah, L. A., & de Souza Bido, D. (2015). Project management and its
effects on project success: Cross-country and cross-industry
comparisons. International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), 1509-1522.
Dennis, A., Wixom, B. H., & Tegarden, D. (2015). Systems analysis and design: An object-
oriented approach with UML. John wiley & sons.
Isaias, P., & Issa, T. (2015). High level models and methodologies for information systems.
New York, NW: Springer.
Uhl, A., & Gollenia, L. A. (Eds.). (2016). A handbook of business transformation
management methodology. Routledge.