It’s highly likely you’ve already heard of hybrid management when it comes to driving IT projects within government agencies.
You arrive at your client’s office, inquire about the methodology used to manage projects, and a benevolent voice reveals the ultimate secret: “We manage using hybrid.”
Talking about Hybrid…
Hybrid. From the Latin hibrida (“mongrel, of mixed blood”), roughly denotes a compound of elements of different natures.
In IT project management, hybrid often refers to the junction of classical waterfall management with an agile approach for implementation.
An example of this hybrid management would resemble the following figure:
(Source: PMI)
What impact does this have on conducted activities?
In the hybrid logic of IT project management, a set of activities will be conducted and retained according to the waterfall methodology, including:
- Project initiation and planning;
- Analysis and preliminary architecture;
- Project status meetings: Steering committee, project oversight committee, management committee (if applicable);
- Monitoring, reporting, and accountability;
- Communication and change management;
- Documentation according to the applicable management repository (e.g., Green Guide, macroscope);
- Project closure.
Within this management framework, implementation would occur using agile, with its artifacts and guiding principles.
Often, certain roles in the waterfall project will coexist with those in agile: project manager, scrum master, product owner, business sector representative, pilots, agile implementation team, project director.
Is cohabitation without risks?
At first glance, mixing both management approaches can only benefit the organization. Indeed, each of the two approaches has long demonstrated its strengths, and despite some disadvantages or limitations, it is possible to leverage the strengths of both to carry out projects with confidence.
However, this hybrid model can only bear fruit if the organization has reached a level of maturity in the coexisting approaches, enabling it to know when and how to put into practice the concepts and mechanisms of each methodology.
A lack of maturity in one of the approaches could introduce additional complexity to the project, generate unnecessary issues, and, most importantly, confuse teams on the ground regarding the methodological directions taken.
What is your experience with hybrid management of IT projects?
“Success in management requires learning as fast as the world is changing.” Tom Peters.