What is Waterfall Project Management?
Waterfall project management is the most straightforward or most original project management approach and is synonymous with classic, linear or traditional project management.
Project management wants to increase efficiency, establish rules, provide templates and checklists, and define partially automated, digitized processes.
The implementation of the project rendering to the waterfall model takes place linearly or sequentially. It means that the individual process steps are processed one after the other.
After each work step, the results check and accepted, and approved by the customer. Only then will we continue to the next step.
A waterfall project is nothing without a specification and a specification. The specifications are the catalogue of requirements set by the client; the specifications then specify how these requirements are to meet. Moreover, in the world of Waterfall project management monday.com plays an important role, to get to know more information about monday.com, you can visit their official website.
Description of Waterfall Project Management
In addition to project management, process management or quality management also developed so that cyclical process phase models moved into project management.
Deming’s PDCA cycle with phases Plan (tarpaulin) Do (tun), Check (control), and Act (react) is a well-known, cyclical model from quality assurance.
It led to rightly complicated rules and project management systems, some with specializations in different project types. This development resulted, for example, in the process-oriented, learning project management approach of the Project Management Institute (PMI) or the Automotive SPICE standard in the automotive industry.
The orientation to clear standards and norms and the very rational, causal thinking characterize the ego-development stage E5 and lead to relatively fixed ideas of the being and functioning of the world. “Cost orientation” is a rational cornerstone.
With personal development, an incipient self-perception begins self-criticism and seeing different perspectives and motives is made possible. Professional thinking with an emphasis on efficiency is in the foreground for rational reasons.
Here I often experience that agile tools use without knowing anything about the elegant background. A hammer is a hammer – period. The pursuit of performance and effort outweighs the guilt and duty of previous stages.
How to Choose the Right Approach for Waterfall Project Management?
With the Waterfall Project Management, you can develop new, fascinating functions much faster, but each change will also take some time for troubleshooting. With a more strictly organized waterfall process, the latest versions better complete.
The process makes it easier for the manager (purely theoretically) to calculate the budget, the time required, and the work necessary to complete the project.
From the customer’s point of view, continuous agile development leads to the gradual improvement of the products they already use and reinforces models such as monthly subscriptions.
Suppose the development base on the waterfall model. In that case, it does indeed lead to the fact that customers’ expectations for new products and innovations are somewhat limited, but it inspires the anticipation of the new product.
In addition, teams that work according to the waterfall method can focus more on ensuring that the final product meets customers’ needs and offers them a positive experience.
This approach to the development process has allowed many software development companies to streamline their work. This method has proved very efficient in other areas, such as finance, marketing, and education.
Step by Step to the Waterfall Project Management
As an example, project let’s start with the development of an app. The implementation according to the waterfall model would include approximately the following steps:
Catalogue of requirements (specifications and specifications)
Conception.
Design.
Creation of a prototype. (Proof of concept)
Technical implementation.
Testing.
Documentation,
Extradition.
Maintenance/Support.
This cycle begins anew for each development phase procedure according to the waterfall model is particularly suitable if the client already has an exact idea of the final product and it can check in use after each phase of development.
Wrike is a powerful project management resolution that enables leaders to use the method that is best suited to achieve their goals. You can set up a waterfall workflow with a Gantt chart or create an agile workflow with dashboards and custom workflows.
No matter what method you use, Wrike allows you to closely monitor the processes through a project timeline, continuous communication with your team or stakeholders, and the ability to share information and documents and conveniently.
Teams should focus on customer satisfaction. It achieves by delivering products and services quickly and continuously.
Developers work in close cooperation with stakeholders.
Team members need to be motivated to achieve the best possible result and equip with the necessary tools and resources.
The entire focus must be on technical performance and simple design.
The development is proceeding at a constant and continuous pace.
The teams achieve the best results by organizing themselves. In addition, they must regularly improve their processes to optimize efficiency.
This approach to the development process has allowed many software development companies to streamline their work. This method has proved very efficient in other areas, such as finance, marketing, and education.
What are the Advantages of Waterfall Project Management?
Predictability and control (clear relationship between performance and costs).
First, Know the procedure (“no experiments”).
Clear the differentiation of the individual steps.
From the outset, a common understanding of the work to be delivered (through specifications or specifications).
The client’s work is only necessary for the conception phase.
Behind the water, the curtain is most likely a cave with pirate gold hidden.
What are the Disadvantages of Waterfall Project Management?
Inflexible to changes and in the procedure. The service description defines at the beginning of the project. At this point, the project is not always wholly manageable.
Especially with longer-running projects, this can lead to the product being outdated when completed. In addition, experience has shown that there are many change requirements in the course of the project.
These change requirements increase the time and financial framework of the project. If there are many change requirements, the focus on the actual objective of the project can lose.
Undesirable developments are only noticed very late in the project.
The conception phase can involve a long coordination process in the case of unspecifying specifications.
A finished product is only available at the end of the implementation. The acceptance and thus the success of the product can only then check.
Conclusion
Waterfall project management, like a cake recipe with the right ingredients and resources, in compliance with the behavioural instructions, leads relatively safely to a reproducible output, the cake.
This approach to the development process has allowed many software development companies to streamline their work. This method has proved very efficient in other areas, such as finance, marketing, and education.