Digital transformation requires a number of challenges that companies are facing in an increasingly efficient manner. In fact, in the face of new problems, there is room for flexibility and adaptability that urge companies to change their organization to something that includes more than one management method. In fact, this is the only way to cope with what an ever-changing world demands. And this is also a way to generate greater efficiency. One of the best ways companies have found for this adaptation is, precisely, hybrid project management.
What is Hybrid Project Management?
Hybrid projects, or the term ‘hybrid’ is something one can easily relate to modern times. After all, hybrid working is a growing trend in companies and has taken on a tremendous dimension after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, the closure of the establishments will have had a significant impact on the life of companies and forced remote work to become a must… which would become a trend.
However, Hybrid Project Management is something different. In fact, it has been studied for several decades now, long before a new pandemic was imagined. In fact, several academics, long before this, studied this theme. From the articles produced, the definition that can be briefly extracted is that it is a style of project management that combines several management approaches converted into one methodology. In other words, it includes several management processes that flow into one. It may sound a bit Frankenstein-like, but it has more flexibility than the monster created by Mary Shelley in 1931… and is, above all, more agile.
Agile Method
The term ‘Agile’ is associated with something fast, something that moves lightly and has an easy way of dodging obstacles it faces. Now, if a company were to assume a homogeneous corporeal form, it certainly wouldn’t care that it was this one.
This is where agile project management comes in, within what is hybrid project management. It is an approach that spans multiple iterations towards the completion of a project, and is most often used in software development.
One of the great advantages of agile project management is precisely that it can adapt with each step (or iteration). The great advantage of this is that profits can be made throughout the process (or the product’s life cycle) and not just at the end of it.
Agile methods meet traditional methods through hybrid project management, where the initial definition is joined between the goal and the vision. That is, if traditional methods aim at something more measurable and have a structure oriented towards the starting point, agile methods (or agile, come on), tend to seek a broader vision of reality, seeking constant adaptation during the project while adding value to it. In other words, the goal is also a point of arrival, but it can vary, giving, in a way, reason to those who say that what matters is not the destination, but the journey.
In fact, it is with this flexibility in mind that other methods have been created from the Agile philosophy that are included in the management of hybrid projects, such as Wagile or Agifall, which we detail below.
Wagile and Agifall approaches
Bearing in mind the Agile philosophy, the Wagile and Agifall approaches are themselves included in hybrid project management, being a combination of Agile and Waterfall methods. Now, this second method has an approach where there is a linear progression from the beginning to the end of the project. It differs from the Agile method in that it requires each step to be completed before the next can be started. The flexibility of the Agile method allows (and will even encourage) the team to work in the most varied phases of projects.
But why, then, should the two methods be merged? There are several reasons for this. One goes through the transition from one to the other. In other words, in order to avoid abrupt cuts, there is flexibility so that both approaches can be used. There may also be several teams working on the same project with different methodologies, which requires the adaptability typical of hybrid projects.
Scrum
The Scrum approach also has something of the Agile philosophy that is so present in hybrid project management. In fact, it is influenced by this same method, as it includes several iterations that draw gains for the company during it and not only at the end. In fact, the main characteristics of the Scrum methodology are its adaptability and flexibility… even though it dates back to the 1980s of the XXI century. After all, it was then that it started to be developed in the works of Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka in the article The New Product Development Gamewhere it’s taken a look at how Honda or Cannon were able to leverage product development by taking advantage of a scalable approach and focusing on the importance of including the team in decisions.
But what is the Scrum approach? It is an evolution of the Agile philosophy, and is mainly present in software development. Its execution is defined for short and periodic blocks, called Sprints, which oscillate between 2 to 4 weeks.
As stressed by Takeuchi and Nonaka, it is easily scalable and has the flexibility desired in hybrid project management.
Asana is a suitable platform for implementing this or other philosophies.