A standard is a set of requirements that the project manager must meet.
A framework is a set of guidelines to be considered, but not a mandate for the project manager to follow.
A methodology is a set of procedures for performing a process, in this case project management.
A benchmark is a measure against an outside source to see if the project manager is meeting their goals.
Project management approaches can be divided into two, regardless of the standards, frameworks or methodologies applied.
The end goal is known in advance of the project initiation. The project scope is methodically scheduled to reach that goal. The Project Manager then executes against that schedule and tracks & controls the project accordingly. This is the traditional approach to project management.
The end goal is not known in advance of the project initiation. The project scope is tweaked & changed to achieve a minimal viable outcome, which is usually called a Minimal Viable Product (MVP). The Project Manager reports the progress of each iteration and the team demonstrate their output to the stakeholders for them to review and request changes for the next iteration.
There are many different Project Management methodologies, frameworks, standards and benchmarks . Each have their own strengths and work best in certain situations and environments. This is a list of over 30 such approaches to Project Management methodologies.
Overview of Disciplined Agile: DAD is a Scaled Agile framework. Acquired by PMI in 2019, Disciplined Agile originated from Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD) as a way to move beyond Scrum and scale Agile practices in large organizations.
Aim: Through its 21 process goals and structured project phases, Disciplined Agile aims to promote work transparency, flexibility and continuous improvement. It helps teams stay on the same page and guarantee accountability in the project phases of development.
Popularity: With the backing from the PMI, this is likely to become the most popular form of Agile in the years to come.
Keywords: Toolkit, WoW, empiricism, life-cycles, Scott Ambler, Mark Lines
Overview of DevOps: DevOps are practices for managing the flow of work between software developers and IT operations. It is a set of practices to manage the end-to-end software engineering & deployment process. DevOps takes from Agile processes and applies them to Infrastructure.
Aim: DevOps seeks to break down the silos between software development and IT operations in order to create a culture that is more agile, innovative, and responsive to changes.
Popularity: In the cloud infrastructure world of AWS, Google Clouds & Microsoft Azure, DevOps is extremely popular
Keywords: Infrastructure-as-a-code (IaC), Continuous Integration (CI), Continuous Delivery (CD), CALMS
Overview of DSDM: DSDM is an Agile delivery framework. It delivers functionality based on prioritization of Must, Should, Could & Would (MoSCoW method) items. With DSDM costs, quality and time are fixed at the outset, while scope is variable. It focuses on open communication. It achieves success by focusing on 8 core principles.
Focus on the business need
Deliver on time
Collaborate
Never compromise on quality
Build incrementally from firm foundations
Develop iteratively
Communicate continuously & clearly
Demonstrate control
Aim: To provide certainty to management as to the delivery costs of a project
Popularity: The Agile Business Consortium (ABC) advocates its use to blue-chip companies around the world.
Keywords: Time-box, MoSCoW, Feasibility, Foundations
Overview of FDD: Feature Driven Development is a documentation heavy Agile methodology that focuses on delivering features through the following phases:
Develop overall model
Build feature list
Plan by feature
Design by feature
Build by feature
Most effort is spent on the last two phases.
Aim: To deliver regular feature updates to clients, built upon their knowledge through Domain Object Modeling and with fewer meetings.
Popularity: Popular with teams working on long complex software projects.
Keywords: Domain Object Modeling, Individual class ownership, meta-modelling
Overview of Crystal: The Crystal Agile development framework is a lightweight process where teams work together in the same physical space. In this way the individuals can verbally communicate to the experts they need. A fast feedback loop enables frequent deliverables. The framework focuses on the dimensions of teams, criticality and project priority, through the lens of Comfort, Discretionary money, Essential money, and Life of the project. It scales from 6 to 200 people.
Aim: The aim of Crystal is to provide a lightweight framework that delivers frequent improved deliverables based on reflection and team interaction.
Usage: Used in the software industry, where all stakeholders are present & handoffs or documentation is not required.
Popularity: Developed by one of the signatories of the Agile Manifesto, it has gained popularity.
Keywords: Episode, Crystal Clear, Crystal Yellow, Crystal Red, Crystal Sapphire, Crystal Red, Crystal Orange Web, Crystal Diamond.
Overview of CPM: The Critical Path Method (CPM) [1957] is a project management methodology designed to help with the planning, scheduling, and control of large-scale activity-oriented projects. It looks to minimize risk by planning everything up front. CPM identifies all of the individual project tasks and works out which ones are dependent on each other and which are independent. It is such a key concept that it is incorporated in multiple other standards and frameworks.
Aim: Reduce delays by planning everything at the start of the project.
Popularity: It is one of the most popular project management techniques used specifically by engineers.
Keywords: Crash the Plan, Start Start, Start Finish, Finish Start, Finish Finish, Slack, Lead, PERT.
Overview of CMM: The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. It was originally created for the U.S. Department of Defense to assess their software contractors. It does this by assigning one of five maturity levels for process improvement to provide organizations with a roadmap for increasing quality. The CMM offers a systematic approach to improving the process with regards to organization, management, assessment, planning and control.
Aim: To benchmark the degree of competence in achieving software and systems engineering project objectives. The higher the level, the more capability and maturity the software has.
Popularity: US DoD contractors.
Keywords: Initial (ad-hoc), Repeatable, Defined, Capable, Efficient, Best Practice, Measurable.
Overview of CCPM : The Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) focuses on resource delivery. It ensures success by building in buffer time between critical deliverables. Build on the Theory of Constraints CCPM delivers by adding slack time to the schedule to mitigate against for delays. As such, the project may be longer than otherwise necessary, but it is likely to deliver on time, if managed correctly.
Aim: To deliver on time and on budget, CCPM identifies the resources required to for dependent and non-dependent tasks and plans around them.
Popularity: Built into most waterfall project plans, this methodology is very popular.
Keywords: Slack, buffer, resource buffer, feeding buffer, project buffer, constraint, resources, bottlenecks.
Overview of APMBOK: The Association for Project Management (APM) is an industry body that leads the profession of project management. Its book of knowledge is on its 7th edition containing 80 topics covering iterative & linear lifecycles, personal health and wellbeing, leadership, stakeholders and other drivers of successful change.
Aim: The APMBOK aims to define the best practices for managing complex project
Popularity: The APMBOK is used by 35,000 members from 450 organizations across 160 countries.
Keywords: Strategy, Life cycle, PMO, Analogous estimating, Analytical estimating, Breakdown Structure
Overview of Agile: Agile is a project management methodology that is highly iterative in nature. It focuses on flexibility to adapt to changing requirements and feedback from stakeholders. It is not a linear process with a predetermined end point. It is best used in fast paced and dynamic environments. This methodology typically consists of small, self-directed and cross-functional teams. These teams are given more autonomy compared to the other methodologies. The Agile methodology is very useful for projects that require quick turnaround or the ability to respond to change.
Aim: To empower teams to successfully manage their projects in an incremental, iterative, and sustainable way through a set of principles and practices.
Popularity: By embracing change and by capitializing on how people best work together, Agile is the most popular framework. It is an umbrella term that has many variations, which as listed below.
Keywords: Scrum, Lean, Crystal, Change, XP
Overview of ICB: The ICB benchmark from the International Project Management Association (IPMA) is currently on version 4.
Aim: To provide a standard on competence for project, programme and portfolio managers, through People, Practice and Perspective. It does this through 46 competences that it has defined. These are classified in Technical, Behavioral and Contextual competences.
Popularity: Second most popular after the PMI.
Keywords: People, Practice and Perspective
Overview of HERMES: HERMES is a project management methodology from Switzerland for international organizations.
Aim: The purpose of the HERMES is to help project managers focus on the most important things, like your project's goals, while leaving them with some time to actually get work done.
Popularity: Swiss IT Government contractors & Swiss companies.
Keywords: Scenarios, Phases and milestones, Modules, Roles, Tasks, Outcomes, INTERLIS
Overview of GAPPS: Global Alliance for Project Performance Standards (GAPPS) – an open source standard describing COMPETENCIES for project and program managers. GAPPS offers tools to assist project managers, by comparing different project based standards, project complexities, & categories.
It is used to better understand, to guide development, and assess the competence of practitioners in a range of project based roles.
Aim: Their aim is to help project managers to understand and assess the competence of their members.
Popularity: 60 member organizations including APM, IPMA, PMI,
Keywords: CIFTER, ACDC, i3d3
Overview of LeSS: LeSS is a set of principles and experiments that seeks to stay true to the nature of Scrum. It provides its framework with a set of rules based on structure, product and Sprint.
Aim: LeSS promotes applying experiments and discovering what works best for product teams at a certain moment.
Usage: Use LeSS when you need to quickly scale multiple Scrum teams to achieve a common goal, or LeSS Huge for thousand of people for a common product or goal.
Popularity: Competing with DAD, Nexus and SAFe in Scaled Agile organizations
Keywords: Structure, Product, Sprint, Scrum scaled, Shu Ha Ri model, experiments
Overview of Lean: Lean is an approach to software development that emphasizes on improving quality of the product by reducing waste. A lean approach to software development means that the team has to be more efficient and effective in order to deliver a better quality product on time. For example, use of advanced tools like continuous integration and continuous deployment help track the progress of a product continuously and reduce waste. It looks to ‘Build Quality In’ to software applications, eliminate waste (such as Context Switching)
Aim: The aim of the lean project management methodology is to minimize waste and maximize value by using practices such as minimizing the use of resources, managing customer relationships and sustaining continuous improvement.
Popularity: Following on from multiple popular books on the subject Lean is now a very popular way of running a project, a company and a product.
Keywords: Define Value, Map the Value Stream, Create Flow, Establish Pull, Pursue Perfection
Overview : While Kaizen is not a project management methodology it is an important framework that you can overlay on any of the methodologies or frameworks here. Kaizen is the philosophy of continuous improvement. It translates from Japanese into ‘change for the better’. The process cycle put in place is akin to PDCA (Plan, Do, Check and Act) where the practitioner is continually reviewing the current state, setting goals, and implementing improvements. If any task or process does not add value, it should be eliminated.
Aim: Speaking with data and managing by facts. Kaizen focuses on empirical evidence to drive improvements. It aims to find the root causes of problems.
Usage: Use on large projects where facts can be gathered and process change can be implemented.
Popularity: Kaizen is popular in large manufacturing and technology companies.
Keywords: Eliminate Waste, PDCA, Point Kaizen, System Kaizen, Plane Kaizen, Cube Kaizen.
Overview of ISO/IEC/IEEE 16326:2019: IEEE/ISO/IEC 16326-2019 defines the process for managing software projects. From the Project Management Plan (PMP) to those responsible for executing any ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 system life cycle process or ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 software life cycle process.
Aim: To ensure that complex software systems fit together through proper planning processes.
Usage: For use in multi-party / multi-vendor implementations & integrations of complex software-based systems
Popularity: Companies where such government body certification is required.
Keywords: PMP, Activity mapping, task mapping, schedule control plan
Overview: The International Project Management Association (IPMA) has over 70 member associations around the world who set standards, train members and issue certifications for Project, Programme and Portfolio Management through its four level certifications (4LC) . The standards are encoded in the Project Excellence Baseline (PEB) and Performance Rated Organization (PRO)
Aim: To access the competency of project managers through exams and face to face interviews.
Popularity: Over 200,000 IPMA certificates have been issued.
Keywords: PEB, PRO, PPPM
Overview of ISO 21502:2020: This is the International Standard related to project management published by ISO. It provides guidelines for Project Managers.
Usage: This standard can be applied to any type of project regardless of whether it is predictive, incremental, iterative, agile, adaptive, or hybrid.
Aim: To provide high-level explanations of project management approaches that are believed to operate effectively and deliver good results.
Popularity: Large companies that need to conform to ISO standards.
Keywords: Project lifecycle, decision points and gates, 3P
Overview of Nexus: Nexus is a Scaled Agile framework. It implements Scrum at scale using 3-9 team members within 3-9 Scrum teams.
Aim: The aim of nexus is to simplify scaling Scrum by adding on one layer above the Scrum ceremonies via the new role of the Nexus Integration Team
Usage: Use when you need to focus up to 80 people on a single Product Backlog, using 3 to 9 Scrum teams
Popularity: Competing with SAFe and DAD and LeSS in Scaled Agile organizations
Keywords: Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Backlog, Sprint Retrospective and Refinement
Overview of LFA: This is a tool for the objective orientated strategic planning of projects. Developed by USAID as a decision making tool to organize your thoughts and the information you have, by answering a battery of questions.
Aim: To break down complex problems so that they can be planned correctly as an objective orientated project.
Usage: Should you use LFA to identify problems & needs in society, to facilitate selecting & setting priorities between projects. To plan & implement development projects effectively and to follow-up & evaluate development projects.
You should use Logical Framework Approach (LFA) when reviewing pros and cons of building a new stadium in a city or when narrowing down your options in specific situations, such as deciding between two different treatments for a disease.
Popularity: Multilateral donor organizations, health care.
Keywords: Problem Tree, Objective Tree, GOPP workshop, Objectively Verifiable Indicators (OVIs), Means of Verification (MoV)
Overview of SAFe: SAFe is a Scaled Agile framework that works across the whole organizations to delivery incremental updates to Programmes of work. There is no role for a Project Manager in the SAFe framework, however, as always, project management skills are essential to coordinate activities.
Aim: To unify the delivery of work across all departments in the organization into coordinated releases every two weeks, with advanced planning taking place every 10 weeks prior to the start of a new Program Increment.
Usage: Use when working in a software development organization, with senior management backing. Working in large or small teams.
Popularity: Competing with DAD, Nexus and LeSS in Scaled Agile organizations
Keywords: Program Increment (PI), Iteration, Agile Release Teams (ART), Release Train Engineer (RTE), System Thinking, WSJF
Overview of Scrum: Agile Scrum framework It acknowledges that the end product is probably not known at the start of the project and as such embraces changes. Scrum combines some aspects of the waterfall model with iterative development to produce fast feedback loops during project development. This is most popular in software project development. It relies upon people before processes and open, transparent communication.
Usage: Use when with a small team to meet the demands of a stakeholder where they are likely to change their minds a lot. For best practices, see my guide on how to utilize Scrum by taking advantage of its underlying theories
Aim: To quickly produce a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and iterate from there.
Popularity: Scrum is the most popular agile project management framework.
Keywords: Party Poker, Daily Scrum, Sprint, Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog
Overview of Scrumban: Scrumban is a hybrid of the Agile methodologies Scrum and Kanban. The process of Scrumban is composed of three phases: planning, performing, and reviewing. Work is first planned, then placed on a Kanban board. Work In Progress (WIP) limits are defined and work the moves across the board. During the planning phase, the scrumban team identifies the order of tasks. The team also determines two types of tasks: "to-do" tasks and "ready" tasks.
Aim: To get the best of worlds from Scrum and Kanban.
Usage: Use when Scrum is failing or work needs to be more planned out than in a typical Kanban approach.
Popularity: Naturally popular. It can be used sometimes without teams even knowing that the process has a name.
Keywords: WIP, Ready, To-Do, In Progress, Done, Party Poker, buckets, pull.
Overview of Six Sigma: Six Sigma is a set of tools and techniques for process improvement that was created by Motorola in 1986 for manufacturing industries but now it's been adopted by other industries as well. The goal of Six Sigma is to produce processes with a small number of defects. Six Sigma has been used to improve how companies are run, with some large corporations reporting sizeable savings in production costs and quality improvements. It achieves this through Defining, Measuring, Analyzing, Improving and Controlling (DMAIC) the process.
Aim: To reduce the number of defects in a product
Usage: Use Six Sigma when quality is of the paramount importance to the output of the product.
Popularity: Very popular in heavy weight manufacturing, pharmaceutical and software industries.
Keywords: Yellow belt, Green belt, Black belt, DMAIC, DMADV
Overview of PRINCE2: PRINCE2 (PRojects IN Controlled Environments) is an internationally recognized process improvement framework. It was originally developed by the UK Government for use in the country's civil service. The framework is now run by the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), a part of the UK Cabinet Office.
The PRINCE2 process provides organizations with a systematic approach to project management, including the processes and activities required to plan and manage a project from start to finish. The PRINCE2 framework provides organizations with the ability to manage and control their projects with confidence, delivering the right result on time and within budget. It contains a lot of processes and documentation / artefacts, which ensure that everything is considered and double checked. It is not a lightweight & quick process.
Aim: To ensure success by managing the six aspects of a project; Scope, Timeline, Risk, Quality, Benefits, Cost.
Usage: Use when a project is complex and requires a lot of governance and control.
Popularity: UK, Australian Government contractors.
Keywords: Business justification., PID, Exception report
Overview : PRiSM is a principles-based, sustainable project management methodology. It extends beyond the typical project life-cycle, containing pre-project planning and post-project benefits realization. It seeks to strike the right balance between limited resources, social responsibility and sustainable results for a project.
Aim: It aims to answer the question of how to make your project ‘greener’ by implementing the following six principles;
Commitment and Accountability
Ethics and Decision Making
Integration and Transparency
Principals and Values
Social and Ecological Equity
Economic Prosperity
Usage: Use when the whole organization is strategically aligned to implement greener projects.
Popularity: Likely to gain popularity in the coming years.
Keywords: 5Ps (People, Planet, Prosperity, Process and Products), Sustainability Management Plan, Green Vendor Scorecards
Overview of PPFM: The Procedures for Project Formulation and Management (PPFM) is a detailed guideline for project formulation, management, and completion. Created in 2006, the Ministry of Defense, Government of India adopted the procedures in 2011.
Aim: To develop and create a roadmap for the project from start to finish. PPFM guides the formulation, management and evaluation of projects.
Usage: Working with the Indian Government
Popularity: Used within the Indian Government and its branches
Keywords: DATE, CDR, DT&E, UATT, RRAT
Overview of PM²: PM² is a project management methodology developed by the European Commission, that has been designed to reflect the most important aspects of project management, in order to help organizations to manage their projects more effectively. It divides projects into 4 phases: Initiating, Planning, Execution, Closure.
Aim: PM² was created with the goal of providing a comprehensive, systematic approach to managing projects.
Usage: Use when working on a month long project with 3 people in the European Commission
Popularity: Not widely used outside of the European Commission.
Keywords: PM² Guide V.3. Project Logs. Project Acceptance Note.
Overview of PMI's PMBOK: The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of guidelines for project managers published by the Project Management Institute (PMI). PMI provides certification and awards from CAPM (0-3 years experience) to PMP (3 years+) to specializations such as risk and scheduling. The PMBOK includes information on how to plan a project, how to execute a project, how to monitor and control a project, how to close a project, and how to maintain the knowledge acquired during a project.
Aim: The aim of PMBOK is to provide guidance& standard to project managers in order to help them manage any project in any industry.
Usage: The PMBOK standards can be applied to any project
Popularity: The most popular with nearly 3 million members.
Keywords: PMP, PMBOK, CAPM, Disciplined Agile
Overview of XP: The eXtreme Programming (XP) Agile methodology relies on the on-going collaboration of developers and stakeholders. to make decisions collaboratively. Working in short, iterative cycles of development, the XP methodology aims to shorten the time it takes for new features to get developed and released. It ensures quality by pair programming and quick feature deployments.
Aim: The aim of the eXtreme Programming (XP) Agile methodology is to create the most valuable product possible in a predictable time-frame.
Usage: Use XP when the team is situated together and some or all of the technologies being used are new, or new to the developers.
Popularity: Very popular in start-ups and where teams are sitting together working with new programming languages, as it produces a high quality output.
Keywords: 10 minute build, pair programming, Continuous Integration, Test-First Programming, heartbeat.
Overview of Waterfall: The Waterfall project management methodology is a sequential and linear approach to managing software development projects (and looks like a waterfall in the Gantt charts that represent it). It helps teams anticipate and plan for the work required in upcoming stages of development as well as making it clear where each stage ends and the next begins. 20%-40% of the time is spent in the planning phase.
Aim: The aim of Waterfall project management methodology is to organize and plan projects in sequential phases, where the phases are cascaded from the start of the project to the end. The idea is that a project can be divided into a number of phases, each of which can then be planned and executed sequentially. This is in contrast to Agile project management, which is more flexible and iterative. Waterfall project management may be seen as more traditional and less flexible than Agile project management.
Usage: Use when the objective of the project is known before the project starts and change is minimal. Use when the end goal can be determined at the start of the project, such as building a house.
Popularity: Very popular. Since its creation in the 1970s, it is one of the most widely used methodologies. Its constraints such as a fixed end date do not allow for easy changes to occur.
Keywords: Conception, initiation, analysis, design, construction, testing, deployment and maintenance Phases, Stage Gates, Change Requests,
Overview of TCM: The Total Cost Management Framework is a systematic approach to managing costs of Integrated Portfolios, Programs and Projects. It is AACE International's Methodology. It is a framework to manage fixed and variable costs.
V-Model, an original systems development method.
Aim: The manage the total cost of a project, even before it becomes a project during its Initiation stage.
Usage: Use when you have to make very large capital investments in fixed assets within the construction industry.
Popularity: Used widely in large scale industrial projects to control costs.
Keywords: PDCA, Total Cost Analysis Plan (TCAP), Project Control Process Map, Strategic Asset Performance Management.
Overview of TSP: The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has developed the Team Software Process (TSP) as a standard for managing software projects. The TSP can be used with any sized software project, from small one-person efforts to large multi-team efforts (150 people). The TSP is designed for the case where the software project has a product owner who helps define requirements, specify designs, and guide the process.
Usage: Used for software projects that can be scaled and benchmarked. The team must undertake PSP training first.
Aim: TSP aims to improves team performance; team and product focus on software projects and allowing it to thrive in a disciplined and self-directed environment.
Popularity: Somewhat niche.
Keywords: Personal Software Process (PSP), Capability Maturity Model (CMM), Process Improvement Process (PIP)
Overview of Spiral : This variant on the waterfall methodologies allow learning to take place with each cycle or loop. Each cycle looks to reduce risk. When diagrammed the Spiral Project Management methodology looks like a looped coil.
Aim: The Spiral Project Management methodology aims to reduce risk. This methodology must be closely managed by the project manager as such projects are easily able to fall behind schedule or go over budget.
Usage: The size and complexity of the project depends on how many loops/iterations/phases are required. Each phase is broken into four quadrants: identifying and understanding requirements, performing risk analysis, building the prototype and evaluation of the software's performance. This learning loop continues until the project goal is achieved.
Popularity: The Spiral Project Management methodology is widely used by many organizations working on complex projects.
Keywords: Prototype, Risk, Anchor Point milestones, Life Cycle Objectives, Life Cycle Architecture, Initial Operational Capability
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