Delivery Management
Waterfall with a Twist of Agile
Since the 1970s, businesses and projects followed a very formulaic plan, utilizing a simple Gantt chart that started from point A to Point B with highly static milestones and deliverables along the way. However, due rapidly evolving nature of business requirements and proliferation of new data sources, delivery managers realized how unrealistic following a restrictive flowchart, otherwise better known as “Waterfall” methodology was. Hence, a more flexible and alternative methodology was born.
The Agile methodology was delivery managements’ response to the rapid evolution of business requirements and highly unpredictable variables along the way to project execution. The new methodology, which is used to anticipate and deal with obstacles that may appear at any stage of a project made it possible to make directional changes in the project without hindering the process of development.
At Data Meaning, we saw value in both approaches and adopted a hybrid approach to delivery, which we dubbed, “Waterfall with a twist of Agile!”
The Benefits of a Hybrid Approach:
- Delivery managers run bi-weekly scrums and provide the business the ability to give feedback along the way
- A tangible but flexible end product definition
- More accurate cost and timeline estimates
- A flexible path to execution
This method gives the business visibility into progress by allowing cosultants to begin building smaller, useful parts for users, who will then provide feedback for what is right and wrong. Who said you can’t have your cake and eat it too? At Data Meaning, our delivery methology is a hybrid approach and takes advantage of the best of both worlds.
