Waterfall Project Management

Traditional project management or Waterfall project management is mainly used on projects where activities are completed in a sequence and there are rarely any changes.

The concept of traditional project management is based on predictable experience and predictable tools. Each project follows the same lifecycle, which includes five stages: initiating, planning, executing, controlling, and closing.The ultimate goal of waterfall project management was to make sure all the tasks are carried out in a predetermined orderly sequence.

The waterfall approach is linear where all the phases of a process occur in sequence. It depends on predictable tools and predictable experience. Every project follows the same life cycle which includes the stages.

Gantt chart is the most important technique in traditional project management. Gantt chart gives you a simple overview of a project. It is one of the most useful ways of presenting tasks and activities of the project on a timeline.

Agile project management and agile software development have become hot topics in recent years, however Agile might be the best approach for some projects, other projects still require the rigor of a more traditional approach.

The entire project is planned upfront and any scope for changing requirements is not appreciated. Acceptance of changes is one of the major difference factor in traditional project management vs agile. We can also say agile as modern project management, let see how differ traditional project management vs modern project management.

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product or service.

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools & technique to the project activities to meet the project requirement. Project management enables the organization to execute the projects effectively & efficiently.

Fulfillment of project objectives may produce one or more deliverables like

1. Unique product ( a complete product or enhancement of a existing product or correction of product etc.)
2. Unique service ( a support function)
3. Unique result ( new process, documents etc.)

Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools & technique to the project activities to meet the project requirement. Project management enables the organization to execute the projects effectively & efficiently.

Project Management Process Groups:

The Processes are grouped together in to five process groups. The Logical grouping of project management processes to achieve specific project objectives are called Project Management Process Groups. Below are the five process groups:

1. Initiating Process group: The processes part of initiating process group are performed at the time of new project or new phase of existing project.
2. Planning Process group: The processes part of planning process groups helps in defining the plan for the project like defining scope, planning for schedule, cost, procurement, communications etc. This helps in defining the course for the project to achieve its objectives.
3. Executing Process group: The processes in executing process group is performed to complete the defined work as per plan to satisfy the project stakeholders.
4. Monitoring & Controlling Process group: As part of monitoring & controlling process group, the performance of project is tracked, monitored, reviewed & controlled. The variation from plan is derived & identify what changes are required to bring back the project on track.
5. Closing Process group: The processes part of closing process group are done at the time of closing the project to close the project formally.

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