Liam Rhoehler
Is agile scrum necessary for project execution? No, not in all cases. Traditional methods are equally essential. It depends upon the type of project and environment. Or whether the company, its employees are enough trained to implement scrum correctly.
6 Ways Traditional Methods are Better than Agile Scrum:
Both traditional or waterfall methods and scrum are used to execute projects. It involves proper planning, monitoring, and control. However, the traditional method would be a good deal in the following cases:
1. A Defined Reach:
The team has clearly assessed its reach. Like, they have a clear product or project description available to them.
Moreover, the work to be executed isn’t new. It has been accomplished before and going to repeat the same. Therefore, the traditional method is better to choose over scrum.
For instance, a shipping or a courier service provider has to deliver an item to a pre-defined address. And they repeat the same procedure for all orders every day. So, scrum can be hectic and delaying.
2. Fixed Requirements:
Use the traditional method when you have well-defined requirements. You may have fewer changes during the project, but not expecting much to change.
Suppose you are working as a content writer in a company. You make create creative content in the form of blogs, webinars, case studies, reports, etc. That is to say, the work has a fixed requirement to be submitted before the deadline. And there may be minor changes if needed.
However, we can also use scrum. Well, that doesn’t need.
3. Activities are well-defined:
When you have well-defined estimations and planning, the traditional method is suitable. Take an instance. You own a store or a store manager in a company.
You need to make a lot of concrete estimations for inventory. That comes from past reports and experience.
While scrum method is essential when estimation and planning are difficult.
4. Long Process:
When project execution till completion takes a long time. That might split the project into different phases.
For example, the construction & infrastructure sector. Large projects take 6-7 years to complete. Even residential projects take an average of 4 years. In such a scenario, we opt for the traditional methods. As we have to go by the method of splitting the work into different phases.
However, when it comes to an iterative cycle, like software development, agile scrum is needed. Because each cycle heavily depends upon the previous progress. Moreover, it also involves short cycles of product development.
5. Meet Project Goals within the Time frame:
Most companies use the scrum process to meet project completion goals. However, the actual purpose of the scrum is mostly measured by customer satisfaction.
That is to say, adopting scrum results in a productive outcome with the primary goal of customer satisfaction.
Whereas the traditional method is good when the project success is mostly measured by completion within a timeframe; within a limited cost and scope.
6. Can be Useful until the project is complete:
Take, for example, a bridge or a road. Until it is complete, people can’t use it. Thus, the traditional or waterfall method is useful for such circumstances.
On the other hand, scrum is useful for projects that can be used and basic values can be fetched even if the product is in the developmental stage.
To summarize:
When you have a lot of unknowns, complexity, difficulty to estimate before creating a project, agile scrum is a better option than traditional methods.
While it is better to use traditional methods when you have few unknown, fewer complexities, and are easy to estimate.
Moreover, if the organizations aren’t enough trained to apply scrums, they should go with the traditional way. Because the scrum roles and responsibilities, if aren’t implemented correctly; can be at times hectic and frustrating which can take a negative turn in the company’s growth.
