It is the duty of every project manager to choose the best Project Management Methodologies suited to the business. There are several popular ones that are easily available. As a project manager, you need to know what each one is best suited for! The Methodology can be defined as a system of procedures, techniques, practices & rules followed by those working in a specific discipline. Few examples are Six Sigma, Kanban, and Lean practices.
Project management methodology when selected carefully can guide you throughout the project & complete your tasks efficiently.
Popular Project Management Methodologies
Scrum: It comprises of 5 values, namely, respect, openness, focus, courage & commitment. Its objective is to deliver, develop & sustain several complex products via iterative progress, accountability & collaboration. It best suits projects comprising of 7 or fewer people in the team. It also provides a flexible approach to deliver a service or product. The team roles comprise a product owner, the development team, and the scrum master. Scrum events are sprint planning, sprint, daily scrum, sprint retrospective & sprint review. Scrum artifacts are Sprint backlog and product backlog. Doing some research will help you to know more about the Scrum project management methodology.
Agile: This is one of the most popularly availed Project Management Methodologies. Incremental and iterative projects find it valuable. This process allows the evolving solutions & demands through collaborative efforts made by cross-functional teams and customers. This methodology stems from principles & values followed by the Agile Manifesto. Its objective is to identify better ways to develop software. This is done by providing measurable and clear structures to foster change recognition, team collaboration, and iterative development. 12 key principles & 4 fundamental values make up this project management methodology. Projects which have uncertainty or complexity level and require greater flexibility can find it beneficial. For example, a service or product not developed by the team. This methodology is also said to comprise of methodologies within itself like Kanban & Scrum. Few consider it to be a framework used for the creation & delivery of services & products. Moreover, it carries its own terminology & characteristics.
Six Sigma: It is among the popularly demanded Project Management Methodologies introduced first in 1986 by Motorola engineers. Its objective is to enhance quality and this is achieved by reducing a large number of errors within the process. It is done by recognizing what exactly is not working as per plan and eliminating the same from the process. This project management methodology mostly uses the statistical and empirical and expertise of specialists. Six Sigma Green & Black Belts are the two major methodologies. Six Sigma Master Black Belts are said to supervise them and are DMAIC to improve the business process. Also is present DMADV to create new services, products or processes. Also is presents the Lean Six Sigma process, which helps to enhance team performance. This is achieved by reducing variation and eliminating waste systematically. Larger organizations & companies eager to improve efficiency & quality through data-driven methodology can find it useful.
Kanban: It is considered to be another Agile framework quite similar to Scrum. Being among the popular Project Management Methodologies, it was developed during the 1940s on Toyota factories’ production line. Considered to be a visual method, its objective is to deliver superior quality results by providing clear workflow procedures. This way, bottlenecks if any can be recognized much early during the development process. This project management methodology is known to operate on 6 general practices like flow management, limiting work-in-progress, visualization, experimental or collaborative evolution, using feedback loops & making explicit policies. Visual cues which signal varying stages associated with the development process is used to achieve greater efficiency. They are Kanban Cards, Kanban swimlanes, and Kanban board. Projects requiring a flexible approach and small teams to deliver service or product can find it suitable.
You can go through the above Project Management Methodologies and choose one that fits your project needs perfectly.