A Manager’s Guide to Mixing Agile and Waterfall

Before undertaking any web development project, one of the crucial decisions that business managers and enterprises must make is:

Which project methodology to employ for my project?

The methodology you use is the guiding process and principles in managing the project. It shows how you communicate and work throughout the project and determines how the project tasks are organized and operated. Each methodology has its approach based on initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and launching the project.

Before deciding which methodology to use, take the time to consider the various factors to use with the development team.

1. Are your project requirements and expectations in place
2. Do you need a development team till the release?
3. Do you wish to work with a 3rd-party development company?
4. Will you be making changes to the requirements during the development phase?

Noting these factors, two of the significant methodologies that software entrepreneurs typically consider are Agile and Waterfall. The waterfall is a traditional, linear methodology initially developed for hardware development. It breaks down each project into different phases, each dependent on the previous one, just as the name suggests.

Agile is a well-known and popular method used in software development that focuses on continuous feedback cycles and software releases. As a result, teams can focus on increasing efficiency, improving collaboration, and allowing project requirements to be changed as per need.

The battle between both is legendary as users of both models claim the pros of one’s model while ditching the other model or citing ineffectiveness. However, to end this debate, the industry’s thought leaders have begun to blend both models into a new approach — the Agile-Waterfall hybrid. But before we look into the intricacies of combination, let us look at Waterfall and Agile models individually.

Waterfall Project Management

Waterfall has been used for decades and has earned its popularity. It calls for detailed planning, which helps the business forecast the overall project cost and timeline. It is static, easy to track development milestones, and feature planning. The project comprises five phases: Requirement Gathering, Design, Development, Testing, and Deployment.

When opting for the Waterfall model, the team can move on to the next phase only after the phase before has been completed. It does not allow the team to go back to any phase and fix errors/rework if they occur at any stage. The side effect is that sometimes, testing is skipped as deadlines must be met, which can harm the outcome.

Agile Methodology

In Agile, the team needs to define a limited number of requirements that they can design, develop and test a section. Then, feedback is gathered on the features, and changes are made to subsequent releases. The cycle gets repeated until the client is satisfied with the final product. In this method, the project manager has more control of the project and empowers the team members to think differently and implement new ideas throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Agile-waterfall Hybrid

No “one-size-that-fits-all” solution or methodology is perfect for any project. Industry experts have designed an alternative: the Agile-Waterfall Hybrid, a popular model introduced by Erik Bergmann and Andy Hamilton. By combining the best aspects, companies can adopt the hybrid approach instead of opting for the Agile or Waterfall model.

The model speeds up the project’s quality by combining Agile methodologies with the Waterfall process. The project is divided into various stages in smaller portions, and one task is completed at a time in a sprint. Besides, waiting for one stage to end before the team proceeds with the next is unnecessary. Agile-Waterfall Hybrid can shorten the design, analysis, and planning stage and lets you define the project frame within the budget and delivery time.

When to go for Agile-Waterfall Hybrid?

The Agile-Waterfall Hybrid model can be used in the two typical scenarios

1. The product you wish to build has both hardware and software components equally
2. The product you build is software consisting of both back-end and front-end technologies.

Also, the client may not prefer a complete Agile approach as they may not have defined planning or fixed requirements. This is where an Agile-Waterfall Hybrid can be a good solution.

How to choose a model for your project

When choosing a project management approach for your project, the most crucial part is how an app development company can deliver a valuable product and satisfy clients. You need to consider the factors that work best for you, whether you, as a client, would be involved in the mobile app development process, deadlines, budget, features, team interactions, working in different time zones, etc. These questions need answers before deciding on the project management approach.

At Ailoitte, we prefer to choose Agile for most of our projects that we did recently, such as Stargaze, SupDup, etc., as we deliver the product incrementally and iteratively as the client prefers to review the results in the form of reports and sprint meetings and were actively involved in each phase. We also suggested the Agile-Waterfall model for other projects such as Apna and a Mental Wellness client as we have the flexibility of agile to work quickly and follow waterfall too for initial phases.

Whether you wish to use Agile or Waterfall, we at Ailoitte have the tools to help you and your team plan and stay connected. Contact us today to receive a quote.