Traditionally, the predictive lifecycles for conducting projects were one step ahead of others such as adaptive, incremental, and iterative. However, with the rapid changes in the sector and the requirements of stakeholders, it emerged as a necessity to react to the endless changes in the requirements of the project and the stakeholders.
For this reason, PMI has now a new approach not to favor one development approach and lifecycle over the others. With the tailoring approach, all projects are needed to be tailored according to their nature. As one of the first steps of the preparation phase of a project, the projected deliverables of a project should be evaluated carefully. Because to grant the eventual success of project outcomes, the development approach chosen should be compatible with the nature of the deliverables. So the endeavor of the project manager and the project team in this step will provide an approach to deliver value from the initiating phase to the end of the project. So it is a vital part of the project value delivery system also.In an efficient project management endeavor, if you follow the essence of the Development Approach and Lifecycle Performance Domain, you can determine the right development approach, and lifecycle and you can find the proper rhythm to conduct activities throughout the project to create value for the organization and stakeholders.
What is the Delivery Cadence?
The type of deliveries of projects may change from case to case. Some projects may have a single delivery, some may have multiple deliveries, and some may have periodic deliveries. Delivery cadence simply refers to the timing and frequency of project deliveries. Maintaining the correct rhythm of activities is important here. Because value creation and project delivery are like a heartbeat. When the heartbeat rhythm is steady it means your project is healthy, if it has irregularities it may point out potential problems.
What are the most common development approaches in project management?
Different people may give different names to development approaches. Some organizations even may create their own approach. However the most common ones are predictive, hybrid, and adaptive development approaches. The predictive approach is the most familiar one as it was the focus of former PMBOK guides. The other name of it is the waterfall approach. It is based on planning as much as possible before performing the project activities. It is useful when we are able to define, collect and analyze requirements at the beginning of a project.
When uncertainty exists at the beginning of a project, then the adaptive approach is the most applicable one. In this type of project, requirements change frequently and the project needs to adapt itself to changing requirements. There are two iterative approaches as iterative and incremental.
The third most common development approach is the hybrid approach. It is simply appointed somewhere in the middle of predictive and adaptive approaches. Even if it is more adaptive than being predictive most times, it still has some characteristics of a predictive approach.
See also: Team Performance Domain
Stakeholder Performance Domain