Agile Waterfall Hybrid Model

Difference between Agile and Waterfall Methodologies

Let us first understand the difference between Agile and Waterfall methodologies:

1. Agile Methodology

Agile is the iterative method of project development which takes into account the customer’s demands and expectations. This means that it is used to some glitches and changes in the whole outline of the project that may arise due to these aspects. The agile project management approach is more flexible and makes testing of the whole product fairly easy.

2. Waterfall Methodology

Waterfall methodology is the counterpart of Agile, and it is the recursive approach. The waterfall or linear project management follows a strict routine and doesn’t allow changes in the project in the middle of the project.

Agile Waterfall Hybrid as a New Approach for Companies

Waterfall Agile hybrid methodology allows you to deliver continuously. The teams keep delivering the tasks as per the designed project while incorporating the feedback into the next stage.

Example

In IT industry for example, waterfall agile hybrid methodology allows both the hardware and software teams to work independently with very little dependence on each other. The software team uses the agile method while the hardware team shifts towards the waterfall model.

Merits and Demerits of Agile and Waterfall Methodologies

It is to understand that the Agile waterfall hybrid model where has the flexibility of agile method it also has the fixed expectations that come in from the V model. Here both the teams would have to show a little understanding of the process and adapt to the changes.

This model is surely not perfect, but the way it blends both the project management worlds is remarkable. In order to succeed you need to be capable of working in both the agile and waterfall environments. As a project manager choosing the right people is as important as knowing the nitty-gritty details of the models yourself, which is explained here in what is a project?

Job Opportunities for Agile Waterfall Hybrid Professionals

Due to the growing demand of hybrid agile methodology, many companies are now hiring employees who have knowledge about both these Waterfall and Agile methodologies. This also allows them to use the employees on either of the two models and even for the waterfall agile hybrid model when the need arises.

To know how to manage which project takes certain kinds of skills you may need to learn over the years. However, it would give you a competitive edge if you could learn this a little early in time. For this, it would help if you could get some sort of certification, such as a CPME project management course online and a project management MBA degree from AIMS, which are among the best qualifications that develop expertise in both agile and waterfall methodologies.

How Does Agile Waterfall Hybrid Model Work?

Agile methods are widely used in the software industry. They support frequent, small-scale feedback to identify and quickly fix problems. However, they can be hard to implement if you’re working within a process that isn’t designed with agile principles in mind. Here are some ways to make an existing Waterfall process more agile so that it can keep up with today’s fast-changing needs.

Let us take an example of software development.

Step 1: Define Your Working Process

• First, define the essential steps within your agile waterfall hybrid process.
• Make sure you keep the good parts of your process and adapt them to suit agile principles.
• The agile waterfall hybrid process defines how work gets done through certain project management principles, such as: Creating requirements, planning, testing, and deploying software. Also defines all the steps that will be involved in each activity.
• Some processes are static. They are designed to keep the same basic structure regardless of the type of work that needs to be done. These processes are waterfall, and they are also referred to as linear.
• Other processes are fluid. They adapt to the needs of the work that gets done. Such processes are often referred to as agile. If your methodology is a waterfall, you’ll need to adapt it to become more agile to create a waterfall agile hybrid.
• If your process is agile, however, then you have an opportunity to make it more effective by adding more waterfall structures.

Step 2: Establish Your Team’s Roles and Responsibilities

• Next, you need to define the roles and responsibilities of each team member.
• It’s essential to clearly explain every person’s duties and the team’s goals so that team members can each understand their role in the process.
• In a hybrid agile waterfall, roles are the individual tasks that get assigned to members of the team.
• Responsibilities are what each role should accomplish.
• During the team’s early stages, it’s important to keep everyone focused on the goals the team is trying to accomplish together.
• It’s also important to avoid the trap of micromanaging team members by giving them too many specific directions.

Step 3: Adopt an Everyday Meeting Structure

• In agile hybrid methodology, the everyday meeting structure also needs to be adapted to fit agile principles.
• Agile methods encourage cross-functional project management teams that are able to work together outside of scheduled meetings.
• In these daily stand-up meetings, team members report their status and make sure that everyone is on the same page.
• Daily stand-up meetings are a good way to keep a Waterfall process agile.

Step 4: Embrace Pairing and Small User-Testing Sessions

• Low-fidelity user-testing sessions are a great way to get the most out of your team’s time. This is especially true if your team is large.
• If your team is small and you want to do user-testing sessions, they will probably take too much time out of your schedule.
• Low-fidelity user-testing sessions are a great way to bring team members together to get work done.
• Unlike low-fidelity project sprint demos, they are not concerned with creating beautiful products. They are concerned with testing the functionality of the products your team creates.
• They are a great way to quickly identify and fix problems before they become too big for your team to handle.

Step 5: Establish a Shared Vision and Values

• The shared vision and values are what help bind your team together as a whole. It also capture the core values of your team.
• The shared values are what each member of the team pledges to uphold as part of their daily duties. Team members should hold shared values as part of their daily duties.
• The shared vision and shared values helps team members understand each other and make decisions as a team.

Benefits and Challenges of the Waterfall Hybrid Model

• The promise of mixing agile methods in the waterfall is great.
• It is hard to implement in  agile-waterfall model if you’re working within a process that isn’t designed with agile principles in mind.
• Making an existing waterfall process more agile can help keep up with today’s fast-changing work within the teams.