The document compares agile and traditional project management, highlighting key differences such as flexibility, team organization, and customer involvement. Agile methodologies promote adaptability, continuous feedback, and shared ownership, while traditional approaches are more rigid and documentation-heavy. Overall, agile is portrayed as a more customer-centric and collaborative methodology, whereas traditional project management is characterized by a top-down directive style.

1. Agile vs. Traditional Project Management
Created by: Saqib Javed John (PMP, ACP, ITIL, SCJP, SCWCD)
Traditional Project Management
Agile Project Management

2. Difference between Agile and Traditional
Project Management
Cookbook Innovation
Waterfall Agile
Structured
Adaptability

3. More Rigid and Directions coming Top
to Down
Team may conduct dozens of
experiments to see which works best
More Commanding and Controlling
style of Leadership
Communication flowing freely
between all the team members
Spoon Feeding; Management tell
everyone “What to Do”
Self-Organizing; work is distributed
with consensus by the Team itself
Planning Centric and Plan Driven
Plan could be very fluid in Agile world
as Agile projects are more fluid then
waterfall projects
Document Oriented and Document
Driven
Cross functional, Self-Contained
and Agile is ultimately pragmatic
Resistant to Change
Agile Projects are welcoming to
change; true even changes are
introduced late in the project
Traditional Framework Agile Framework

4. Customer get involved early in the
processes but tended to keep at arm’s
length once the project begins
Customer involvement is the key here
as more closely involved at the time of
work being performed
Escalation to managers when problem
arise
When problems occur, team works
together resolve them internally
Heavy upfront analysis and design
Daily stand-up meetings are held to
discuss work done yesterday, plan of
today and impediments if any
More serious about processes than
the product
Agile methods less focus on formal
and directive processes
Product is planned extensively and
then executed and tested
Work is delivered to client in small and
frequent releases to get rapid
feedback loops
Traditional models favors
“Anticipation”
Agile model favors “Adaption”
Traditional Framework Agile Framework

5. Team Commits so early in the project
before they can put their hands on
Daily Stand-Up meetings are held to
discuss work done yesterday, plan of
today and impediments if any
Heavy documentation before
executing the work packages
Agile Projects are highly democratic
and implement a series of short and
repeatable practices
Slow and structured development
process usually focus on one time
release
Agile is built on the concept of
frequent and small releases known as
“Incremental Delivery” in small chunks
More focus on How than Why
Agile more focus on Why and
retrospective is held at the end of
each Iteration or Release
Ownership belongs only to the Project
Manager
Shared ownership
Traditional Framework Agile Framework

6. o Traditional
o Predictive
o Unplanned
o Undisciplined
o Inefficient
o Wild
o Adhoc
o Chaotic
o Procedure based
o Pizza box methodology
o Black and White proposition
o Just a development
methodology
o Departmentalized
o Perspective by design
o Analysis up front
o Design up front
What Agile is Not or hasn’t

7. o Mindset, Philosophy, Culture,
Lifestyle, Approach and
Thinking
o Unique Project Management
o Iterative & Incremental
Framework
o Visionary, Evolutionary and
Adaptive
o Where everybody understand
the vision
o Efficient and Effective
o Business Focused
o Delivery Focused
o Customer Value Focused
o Faster
o Better
o Reliable
o Cooler
o Collaborative
What Agile is or has

8. o Innovation
o Self-Managing
o Self-Organizing
o Self-Contained
o Self-Commitment
o More Feedback Oriented
o More Satisfaction
o More Customer Involvement
o Less confusion
o More Visible and
Transparent
o Improved Time-to-Market
o Less emphasis on designing
and documentation
o Decreased Risk
o Business-Driven
o Mission-Drive
o Feature-Driven
What Agile is or has

9. o Consensus-Driven
o Test-Driven
o Quality-Driven
o Value-Driven
o Four Eye Technique
o Build-In Quality
o Combined ownership
o Shared ownership
o Freedom to move
o Pragmatic
o Continuous user involvement
o Rapid Feedback Loops
o Short feedback loops
o Planning based on High-
level business view point
What Agile is or has

10. o Just Enough Project
Management
o Has focus of project
Requirements only (Build
only what asked for)
o Project Specific (don’t build
more than the Bare-Minimum
or Bare Sufficient )
o Light weight
o Time boxed
o Responsive to Business
o Become main-stream
o Is an approach which can be
applied on Waterfall
What Agile is or has

11. Created by:
Saqib Javed John
MSc CS, PMP, ACP, ITIL v3F, SCJP, SCWCD
Email: saqib.jav@gmail.com
Skype: saqibjohn76
LinkedIn: pk.linkedin.com/pub/saqib-javed-john/b/125/1b1
Thanks….