Which life cycle is best for your project?

By ExecutiveBrief Staff

What is the size of the project?
Large enterprise projects generally require large number of project teams to work on clearly defined deliverables. The scale of the deliverables is proportional to the size of the project team assigned to do it. Thus, larger project teams are assigned larger set of deliverables which need to be clearly defined. With this kind of scenario, long iterations or waterfall would be more ideal.

Where are the project teams located?
If you have several project teams located in different geographic locations, coordination of work needs to be more detailed and stringent. Work assignments need to be well-defined to avoid confusion and redundancy of work. In such cases, Waterfall is likely more beneficial as it provides clear-cut deliverables and milestones. Applying the agile approach on geographically separate teams may introduce new challenges. As noted by Martin Fowler, a well-known agile evangelist, “Because agile development works best with close communication and an open culture, agilists working offshore feel the pain much more than those using plan-driven approaches.”

What are the critical resources?
Some projects require involvement of unique, skilled resource or integration with highly specialized equipment. In cases where such resources are not immediately available and require planning, the project team must ensure that the resource is fully utilized during its scheduled use. Moreover, tests must be performed on all possible scenarios during the resource’s available time. Otherwise, requesting for another schedule of the resource may entail project delays. In such cases, waterfall may be a better approach where each milestone must be completed before proceeding from one stage to the next and you are assured that the critical resource is well utilized. 

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