This category contains topics associated with a hybrid Agile methodology. There is a big misconception among many people that there is a binary and mutually-exclusive choice between an “Agile” and “Waterfall” approach. That is not the case. It is very possible to blend the principles and practices behind those two approaches to develop a hybrid approach that provides the best of both worlds.
What is a hybrid Agile Process? Is there such a thing? I’ve seen many articles that position “Agile” and “Waterfall” as two binary and mutually-exclusive alternatives with no middle ground between the two.
Instead of thinking of what people commonly call “Agile and “Waterfall” as individual discrete methodologies, it is more accurate to see it as a continuous spectrum of approaches from heavily plan-driven at one extreme to heavily adaptive at the other extreme like this:
If you think of it in that way, it is much easier to see the possibility for lots of approaches in the middle of that spectrum that blend the right level of plan-driven principles and practices with more adaptive principles and practices to fit a given situation.
It takes some skill to make a hybrid Agile methodology work successfully and anyone who would literally try to combine an Agile methodology with a Waterfall methodology to create a hybrid methodology is asking for failure. That’s not the way to do it.
It requires a shift in thinking to do it successfully. Instead of thinking about how you might go about mechanically combining an “Agile” development process with a “Waterfall” process, I prefer to think of a hybrid approach as the appropriate blend of an adaptive approach and a plan-driven approach. The words “adaptive” and “plan-driven” convey an entirely different meaning than “Agile” and “Waterfall”.
Please check the articles associated with this category for more detail:
What Can We Learn from the OceanGate Tragedy? The recent OceanGate tragedy where five people were killed in an apparent implosion was, in hindsight, a disaster waiting to happen; and from a project management perspective, there are many things that could have been done better to prevent this from happening. We can learn from this […]
What Can We Learn from the OceanGate Tragedy? Read More »
Have you given any thought to “How to make a hybrid agile process work”? Some people claim that hybrid Agile projects don’t work at all. For example, I recently saw an article on LinkedIn entitled “Why Hybrid Agile-Waterfall Projects Fail” that caught my eye. I’m not surprised at this article: It takes some skill to
How to Make a Hybrid Agile Process Work Read More »
What is a hybrid Agile Approach? Is there such a thing? I recently came across an article on the Internet that was posted in several places entitled “The Moment of truth: There Is No Hybrid Agile“. This article is so full of stereotypes and misconceptions about “Agile” and “Waterfall” that I felt that I had
What is a “Hybrid Agile” Approach? Is There Such a Thing? Read More »
I often see a discussion about “What is the best methodology for a Project?” or “What methodology do you like the best?” I don’t think that’s an appropriate way to look at methodologies or frameworks at all. No methodology or framework is inherently “better” than all others and you shouldn’t pick a particular methodology just
What Is the Best Methodology for a Project? Read More »
I’ve seen many people ask a question like “should I use Agile or Waterfall for a project? That excludes the possibility that there is a hybrid approach that provides the benefits of both approaches. The Managed Agile Development Framework is an example of a hybrid approach that is very easy to implement Background Some years
Managed Agile Development Framework – A Hybrid Approach Read More »