Project Management Methodologies: A Comprehensive Report

This report provides an overview of project management methodologies, defining their role in project success and outlining key approaches. It differentiates between traditional and modern methodologies, focusing on Waterfall and Agile. The Waterfall methodology is presented as a sequential approach suitable for projects with well-defined scopes, while Agile is highlighted as an iterative approach ideal for projects requiring flexibility. The report further discusses the project life cycle, detailing its stages of initiation, planning, execution, and closing, and how methodologies can be applied within each stage. References to relevant sources support the information presented. This assignment is contributed by a student to Desklib to help other students.

Project Management Methodologies
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Project Management Methodologies
Table of Content
Definition of project methodology ………………………………. 3
Role of project methodology in project management …………… 3
The Methodologies ……………………………….……………... 3
Methodologies related to project life cycle (PLC) ………………. 5
References ……………………………………………………….. 6
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Project Management Methodologies
Definition of project methodology
It is practically a set of well-set procedure or steps or principles which are required to be
followed by the project management team to execute ant project with less risk, cost and schedule
overrun and gain more stakeholders’ satisfaction throughout the life cycle of the project
management (McConnell, 2010). There are mainly five types of methodologies which are the
backbone of the whole project, but the project manager needs to pick the appropriate one as per
the projects requirement.
Role of project methodology in project management
The proper choice of the type of methodology can fulfill all needs of stakeholders, creates a
common media of sharing information so that whole team understands their role and project’s
requirement very well, always the schedule and cost estimates remain within the range. Since the
procedure remains common and well known to all members, the conflicts are minimized and
moreover the present ones are dealt at the very beginning stage of the project which reduces the
rework and increase the productivity along with maintaining the proper quality of the product.
Even due to having all pre-set procedures, the faults or lessons learnt are also documented in
well manner at every stages of the project for future references and this continual improvement
process continues till the end of project management life cycle. So it helps in delivering all kind
of projects very effectively irrespective of its size and complexity, this way the methodologies
are closely linked with the project management.
The Methodologies
The project methodologies are in many numbers which can be applied to the particular type of
project, but majorly the methodology is divided in two categories ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’
techniques or approaches (Katcherovski, 2012). But the two famous and very useful but at the
same time different in characteristics or approach of project management are the ‘Waterfall’ and
‘Agile’ project management methodology (Marcus, 2014).
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Project Management Methodologies
Waterfall Methodology (CIO, 2011):
Approach: it is basically the traditional approach of project management, where
all the activities are very minutely planned and are broken down to its maximum
level and every stage of activities are sequenced one after another, so unless the
predecessor finishes the successor stage or activity cannot start.
Useful for the type of project management: this approach of project management
technique is used for the projects which has very well defined scope and cost with
all the resources aligned and the project team need to only track the activities for
its proper completion with all quality features.
Advantage: this kind of technique is very much useful as it keeps total control on
the scope and the overall cost of the project. No overrun is allowed in the project
by checking them at every stages of completion.
Limitation: because of its tight binding character it binds the total scope and cost,
but is not feasible for the project where the scope is not freeze at the beginning of
the project.
Agile Methodology:
Approach: it is the modern approach of project management in which there is
continuous changes and corrections in scope.
Useful for the type of project management: it is especially useful in the people-
centric projects where continuous feedback is welcomed for the further
improvement of product and implementation in the project like in IT and
marketing projects.
Advantage: this type of approach is very much useful for the business or project
which depends on the feedback or comments from experts or users.
Limitation: the project where the cost or resource is the limitation this technique
cannot be used else the project will fail.
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Project Management Methodologies
Even though having such differences the basic structure or the basic concept of planning and
scheduling techniques is same within the stages of the project where each activity are planned
according to the estimated duration and sequences.
Methodologies related to project life cycle (PLC)
Project life cycle has mainly four stages viz. Initiation, Planning, Execution and Closing
(TenStepPM, 2017). There are various activities within the stages like developing business case,
project charter; appointment of project team comes under the ‘Initiation’ (Method123, 2017).
Figure 1: Stages of Project life cycle
Source: http://www.method123.com/project-lifecycle.php
Then the preparation of various plans falls under the stage of ‘Planning’ and so on in different
stages. And all the stages are inter linked to each other, even they also overlap and the activities
or work packages inside each stages are also properly sequenced to produce a well-defined
project schedule. The above discussed methodologies can be very well be used to develop these
project life cycle.
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Project Management Methodologies
References
CIO. (2011, October 4). Project management methodologies: Understanding and experience will
influence the method in project management. Retrieved August 9, 2017, from cio.com.au:
https://www.cio.com.au/article/402904/project_management_methodologies/
Katcherovski, V. (2012, August 23). 5 Effective Project Management Methodologies and When to Use
Them. Retrieved August 9, 2017, from explore.easyprojects.net:
https://explore.easyprojects.net/blog/project-management-methodologies
Marcus, V. (2014, January 1). Project Management Methodologies: A Beginner's Guide. Retrieved August
9, 2017, from resources.workfront.com: https://resources.workfront.com/project-management-
blog/project-management-methodologies-a-beginners-guide
McConnell, E. (2010, July 22). Project Management Methodology: Definition, Types, Examples. Retrieved
August 9, 2017, from MyManagementGuide.com:
http://www.mymanagementguide.com/basics/project-methodology-definition/
Method123. (2017). Project Management Life Cycle. Retrieved August 9, 2017, from method123.com:
http://www.method123.com/project-lifecycle.php
TenStepPM. (2017). A5.2 Project Management vs. Project Life Cycle. Retrieved August 9, 2017, from
tensteppm.com: https://www.tensteppm.com/open/A5.2PMvsPL.html
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