Project methodology explained

1. Helping you understand
the terminology of
methodology
Are you fluent?

2. Project Methodology
 most people can name a few methodologies
 fewer people can verbalise WHAT a
methodology is
 the sheer volume of terminologies,
references, terms, debates, exams,
qualifications, manuals and books on the
topic, can make the task of looking at
methodologies, so terrifying for some, that it
seems not worth the effort

3. Let’s begin with what is not...
While they’re useful, you can’t deliver a
project with these skills alone:
 Common sense
 An inclination towards perfection

4. So what is methodology?
We’ll revisit this towards the end, but for
now, a methodology is:
 Defined, repeatable steps followed in
order to gain efficiencies in project
delivery

5. Name some:
Ask a group of project managers to list some
methodologies, this is what you’re likely to
hear back:
 Waterfall
 SCRUM
 Nimble
 PRINCE2
 Agile
 DSDM
 Kanban

6. Categorise them
Ask the same group to attribute each name on their
methodology list to these categories:
 Standard
 Approach
 Framework
 Type
 Methodology
 Methodology family
 Principle
 Model
 Tool
Confused?

7. The most important thing to know
is:
 methodologies can be categorised
 they exist to help you!
 what you thought you knew as a
methodology may NOT be best
considered as a methodology

8. Be clear and consistent
There is no list of pre-ordained category
names, which is great because there can
be no wrong or right
 Develop your own categories and give
them names
 Arrange your categories into a hierarchy
 Do think about it
 Do be consistent

9. Why should I categorise?:
 if you try to call everything a
methodology your project management
lacks definition and clarity
 there are thousands of recognised ways
to deliver a project, so you need to
categorise eg:

10. Convention over configuration
Conway's Law
Coupling (computer programming)
Crystal
Crystal Clear
Dependency injection
Design Driven Testing (DDT)
Design-driven development (D3)
Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
Dynamic Systems Development Method
(DSDM)
Encapsulation (computer science)
Enterprise Unified Process
Essential Unified Process
Evolutionary prototyping (Evo)
Extreme Programming (XP)
Feature Driven Development
Free software license
General Responsibility Assignment
Software Patterns (GRASP)
Hollywood Principle
Interface (computer science)
Interface (object-oriented programming)
Inversion of control
Iterative and incremental development
Joint application design, aka JAD or
"Joint Application Development"
Kaizen
Kanban
KISS principle original (Keep It Simple
and Stupid), derogatory (Keep It Simple,
Program optimization
Program to an interface, not an
implementation
Project Management Body of Knowledge
Protocol (object-oriented programming)
Rapid application development (RAD)
Rational Unified Process (RUP)
Release early, release often (RERO)
Responsibility-driven design (RDD)
Scrum
Separation of concerns (SoC)
Service-oriented modeling
Single responsibility principle
Single Source Of Truth (SSOT)
Software craftsmanship
Software System Safety
SOLID (object-oriented design)
Spiral model
Structured Systems Analysis and Design
Method (SSADM)
SUMMIT Ascendant
Team Software Process (TSP)
Test-driven development (TDD)
Two Tracks Unified Process (2TUP)
Ubuntu philosophy
Unified Process
Unified Process (UP)
V-Model
Waterfall model
Wheel and spoke model
When it's ready [2]

11. Define, name and arrange your
categories
My category names:
1. Methodology Framework
2. Approach
3. Methodology Family
4. Methodology
5. Principle/ tools

12. A little infogram often helps with
understanding:

13. 1.
Methodology Framework
2.
Approach
3.
Methodology Family
4.
Methodology
5.
Principle/ tool

14. But, they don’t just work in
isolation...
Let’s go back to our original list...
It’s not either/ or; multiple delivery
approaches can apply to any one project eg:
 Waterfall
AND
 PRINCE2

15. So they don’t sit in isolation
• How could your infogram better explain that a project can
incorporate multiple delivery methods?

16. Framework
Approach
Methodology family
Methodology
Principle/
tool

17. What do you mean by framework?
 A collection of knowledge areas
 Generally accepted as best practice in the
industry
 Give you industry guidance (whereas
methodologies give you practical processes
for managing projects
 Frameworks are not methodologies, and vice
versa
 The two most popular frameworks are
PMBOK (Project Management Body of
Knowledge) and Prince2

18. What do you mean by approach? And
what would be an example of one?
I believe that most projects fit within these
2 sub-categories, which I call approaches
 Linear e.g. Waterfall
 Incremental e.g. Agile

19. What do you mean by family?
 this is a level that I added because I felt it
was required
 some things didn’t fit within methodology
and some didn’t fit within approach
 a family, in this context, refers to a group
which the methodology sits under
 it’s probably easier to consider the
methodologies first, then return to this
category

20. What do you mean by
methodology?
 the repeated process of the same steps in
order to gain efficiencies
 a definable set of methods, processes and
practices that are repeatedly carried out
to deliver projects

21. What do you mean by principals?
 A set of tools which you use to deliver
your project
 Your project toolkit

22. Where would that leave the
original list given by our project
managers?

23. Framework
Approach
Methodology family
Methodology
Principle/
tool
6. DSDM Atern
1. Waterfall
3. Nimble
4. PRINCE2
5. Agile
2.SCRUM

24. For those who consider
categorisation a waste of time:
 Remember the thousands of ways to
deliver a project

25. Convention over configuration
Conway's Law
Coupling (computer programming)
Crystal
Crystal Clear
Dependency injection
Design Driven Testing (DDT)
Design-driven development (D3)
Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
Dynamic Systems Development Method
(DSDM)
Encapsulation (computer science)
Enterprise Unified Process
Essential Unified Process
Evolutionary prototyping (Evo)
Extreme Programming (XP)
Feature Driven Development
Free software license
General Responsibility Assignment
Software Patterns (GRASP)
Hollywood Principle
Interface (computer science)
Interface (object-oriented programming)
Inversion of control
Iterative and incremental development
Joint application design, aka JAD or
"Joint Application Development"
Kaizen
Kanban
KISS principle original (Keep It Simple
and Stupid), derogatory (Keep It Simple,
Program optimization
Program to an interface, not an
implementation
Project Management Body of Knowledge
Protocol (object-oriented programming)
Rapid application development (RAD)
Rational Unified Process (RUP)
Release early, release often (RERO)
Responsibility-driven design (RDD)
Scrum
Separation of concerns (SoC)
Service-oriented modeling
Single responsibility principle
Single Source Of Truth (SSOT)
Software craftsmanship
Software System Safety
SOLID (object-oriented design)
Spiral model
Structured Systems Analysis and Design
Method (SSADM)
SUMMIT Ascendant
Team Software Process (TSP)
Test-driven development (TDD)
Two Tracks Unified Process (2TUP)
Ubuntu philosophy
Unified Process
Unified Process (UP)
V-Model
Waterfall model
Wheel and spoke model
When it's ready [2]

26. In summary
 You shouldn’t call everything a
methodology, even if you know what you
mean, others won’t
 Define your categories at a company,
departmental or project level as
applicable
 Be flexible – document your categories,
but accept that they will and should
change in line with industry best practice
 The key is consistency and
communication of your terminology

27. Stacey E Lowry |
The Good Enabler
Email: gumption.eu@gmail.com
Website: TheGoodEnabler.com
Part of: TheBigStartupExperiment.com
Twitter: @gumptionpm