“Waterfall” project management approach
Imagine that you are a consultant just recently hired as a project manager for a software development project for a small, privately owned landscaping/nursery business. They currently use Excel spreadsheets to keep track of their inventory of plant stock. The owner of the business, who is the project’s sponsor, is very accessible and is eager to get started. Your consulting firm will provide all the staffing for developing and testing this software. The solution infrastructure will use several local windows PCs in conjunction with cloud-based servers and databases.
For this week’s discussion question: Would you follow a traditional “waterfall” project management approach, or would you follow an “agile” model? Why? State your reasons. Be sure to include any key assumptions about the business/project that influence your direction.
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Waterfall Project Management Approach
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Waterfall Project Management Approach
The waterfall project management model involves planning a task into clear, successive stages, with every new stage starting only when the phase before is complete.The waterfall project management model entails breaking down a task into distinct, sequential stages, with each new stage beginning only after the previous stage has been completed. It is a traditional technique in which members of the team work together in a rectilinear fashion to achieve the end goal (Dima & Maassen, 2018). Each member of the team is responsible for a specific task, and no changes should be made to the objectives or stages.
I intend to use the waterfall management approach because the software development process is a lengthy undertaking requiring activities to be completed in a sequential manner. Another advantage of the waterfall approach is that it is simple to follow. It works in the same way as a map, allowing the project manager to understand where the project cycle is at any given time. This is significant in organizing and planning the project hence the smooth flow of activities (Dima & Maassen, 2018). In this project management approach, there is no overlap of activities between phases. The start of a new activity must occur before the conclusion of the previous one. This makes it simple to follow the project through all of its stages without becoming confused between two different phases. Because each participant in the project has a clearly defined role, it will be simple to manage the project in its entirety. This reduces the amount of time wasted in the process of assigning duties. Finally, it is expected that the final product will be complete and fully formed (Dima & Maassen, 2018). This is due to the availability of phase, which has as its primary goal the detection of errors and bugs throughout the entire project lifecycle. As a result, the final software that is produced will be free of flaws and errors. The only assumption made in this project is that the priorities and requirements of the business sponsor will not change, as this could result in the project’s stages and roles being rearranged.
Waterfall management approach is a well-organized traditional method that is more advantageous than other types of approaches in terms of efficiency. The higher the quality of the management approach, the higher the quality of the final product..
Reference
Dima, A. M., & Maassen, M. A. (2018). From Waterfall to Agile software: Development models in the IT sector, 2006 to 2018. Impacts on company management. Journal of International Studies, 11(2), 315-326.. From Waterfall to Agile software: Development models in the IT sector, 2006 to 2018. Impacts on company management. Journal of International Studies, 11(2), 315-326.
