Project methodology is a big topic for organisations looking to manage change and improvement in the most effective way. While in the last decade or so Agile has been in the spotlight as the fast-evolving methodology, businesses are still using other well-proven approaches including Waterfall. The reality is there’s no one size fits all, and in many cases a good outcome can be achieved through any of the popular methodologies. Oftentimes the decision to deliver a project through a certain methodology is down to how that business operates its best, the culture and the vision of the leadership. There are many organisations where multiple project methodologies are used for different projects – and that’s okay. Sometimes the specific tasks and outcomes required will lend themselves to a particular project methodology – for example, a customer-facing tool might benefit from an agile methodology if the business doesn’t yet know exactly how the final product should look – a continual feedback loop and iterative process may generate the best final outcome. However, a project with a more concrete set of outcomes and clarity on what the final product needs to look like might be delivered cheaper and with less noise through a more linear approach such as Waterfall.

In this guide we’ll explore the Waterfall methodology a bit more, and why it might be a good option for your next IT project.

The idea behind waterfall is that it’s a linear approach to project delivery – each stage of the project is completed before the project team moves on to the next phase. This technique, while rigid, does provide a level of confidence that the project’s status is accurate and easily defined at any point. An agile project often includes simultaneous work done in different phases by different teams. This can often create pockets of inefficiency if work is refined heavily through rounds of feedback. This is both Agile’s power and weakness. Of course, well-versed Agile businesses will put structure around their projects through frameworks like Scrum where ‘sprints’ compartmentalise features or tasks on the tech project and stay across progress in ‘stand ups’ – regular meetings with the delivery team.

If a project doesn’t have the reliance upon client acceptance – think of an internal financial management system, or a back-end update to server technology – then Waterfall might be helpful. It’s front-loaded with extensive requirements, planning, documentation and research. This initial phase helps to control costs and time estimates much easier than Agile methodologies.