A theoretical and empirical comparative analysis of waterfall, agile and hybrid project management methods in digital projects: the case of consolut.

Abstract

The aim of the research is to gain a better understanding of how IT companies select and establish project management methodologies (PMM) and if the right methodology is linked to an improvement in the project performance and outcome, through a multi-criteria comparison between three different categories of PMM in terms of their importance in the overall successful outcome of a digital project, as well as the way project management methodologies support the collaborative project teams, and if this support corresponds in the theoretical expectations of each methodology, and eventually lead to a successful project outcome. In order to fulfil the research goal, the research methodology in this thesis followed a systematic literature review (SLR) complemented with the contribution of a quantitative case study conducted via self-administered questionnaires, aiming to bridge the research gap on hybrid approaches, which emerged from the literature overview. The studied population of the quantitative research was consisted of consolut employees field practitioners, who have previously been included in projects managed with the hybrid methodology developed by consolut called Prisma. The findings of the research, indicate technical and requirements complexity, cost in relation to budget constraints, time in relation to tight deadlines, degree of change management acceptance, team synthesis, risk handling, methodological provision for planning, flexibility, customer satisfaction and monitoring framework, as the main criteria which affect the projects and the methodology selection. The research results also highlight the importance of the project nature, assisting in the proper methodology selection, considering the uniqueness of each project needs. Thus, the custom based hybrid approaches combining characteristics of both traditional and agile approaches, enable organizations to identify the project needs and allocate them to certain methodology characteristics, overcoming complexity and leading to project success.