Methodologies to manage projects: the definitive list
If you dedicate yourself to project management, you should know that there are different methodologies to carry out each project. In this opportunity, we share a list of 5 methodologies to manage projects. Read on and choose which one is the best for your company or business
What do we call methodologies? Differences with philosophies and tools
A methodology is a method to manage a project, while a philosophy is used to define a concept, a set of ideas that determine a way of working. Agile and Lean are two types of philosophies related to project management. Likewise, both the Gantt chart and the Kanban board are key tools for managing a project.
List of methodologies to manage projects
Waterfall. For larger or more traditional companies that need a division of processes into phases and stages. An example of this could be: analysis, design, coding, implementation. These methodologies are structured; they allow you much more control, but implementation tends to take longer and is more subject to large drift. Every incident that occurs has a big impact on the project. Therefore, this type of methodology is used to a greater extent when the process is well defined, and every detail of the work is known.
Scrum. At the moment, it is the most used agile methodology for almost any kind of project, not only for computer scientists. It consists of generating deliveries, functional deliverables, as quickly as possible and of the highest quality, in the most efficient way possible. The entire structure of this methodology has been designed for agility. These are short cycles that start and end, designed to achieve certain results.
Kanban. In this methodology, the cycles are infinite, determined by the task (the cycle starts when a new one is created). This task enters the process and goes through all the columns or steps that are necessary for that task to start and finish. Ideally, each team member should have a task in progress. This methodology is indicated for maintenance projects, in which, in general, corrective measures are not needed and there is no plan to solve a specific problem. The cycle is activated when generating a new card, an incident or a task to be solved, and ends when this task comes to an end.
Scrumban. This is an informal Scrum methodology, implementing a Kanban board. It has continuous cycles, without sprints. Despite introducing certain formalities of Scrum (dailies, retrospectives, revisions when necessary), it does not propose specific roles. It allows working with external teams and uses a continuous workflow. It can be useful if Scrum is too structured for your company and Kanban seems informal to you.
XP (Extreme programming). This methodology consists of working without stopping until the desired objective is achieved. In general, the cycle includes these stages: analysis, execution, revision and modification. It may be appropriate for specific cases: finishing a key algorithm, for example. If you follow the planning, design, programming and testing phases, when you finish the last one, you achieve a version of what you have done. The whole team could be dedicated to extreme programming, trying to finish a feature of a system.
In short, the choice of one or another methodology will depend on the projects you manage and the way your company works. From MyTaskPanel, if we had to recommend methodologies to manage projects, we prefer agile ones, such as Scrum and Kanban.