Wagile Methodology for Project Portfolio Management: A Hybrid Solution

What is Wagile Methodology?

Wagile (sometimes spelled “Wagile”) is a hybrid approach to project management that gets its name from combining Waterfall and Agile PM methodologies. An emerging project management methodology that continues to grow in popularity, it leverages the structured planning of Waterfall with the flexibility and iterative progress of Agile. This post explores Wagile methodology, including what it is, who should use it, and includes a template for creating your own Wagile projects.

What are Agile and Waterfall Methodologies?

Agile Methodology

Agile is a flexible software development approach emphasizing continuous feedback, adaptability, and close customer collaboration. Rather than a rigid, linear process, Agile is characterized by:

 

• • Iterative Development where work is broken into short, time-boxed (e.g. 2-4 weeks) “sprints” where tangible progress is made

• • Requirements, plans, and solutions are flexible and adaptable, evolving through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams

• • A continuous feedback and improvement process involves feedback gathered frequently from customers, and methods are regularly refined

• • Customers are involved throughout the process, collaborating with teams by providing input and validating work

The advantages of agile include the ability to adapt quickly to changes in the project and the iiterative approach typically means a faster time-to-market. Collaboration with customers leads to improved satisfaction, and by holding retrospectives agile processes can continually improve and be refined.

The Project Managment Instifute reports that use of hybrid methodologies has surged in recent years, growing  by 57.5% over the last three years.

There are, however, downsides to using an agile approach. Project timelines and costs are hard to predict and a lack of upfront planning may lead to surprises in the future like technical debt. Agile requires a high degree of discipline from both a project manager and their team, without it project scope can drift and timelines get elongated.

Waterfall Methodology 

Unlike Agile, Waterfall is a linear, phase-based software development approach with defined stages that must be completed sequentially before moving to the next phase. Key characteristics of Waterfall include:

 

• • A linear structure where the project progresses through distinct phases such as requirements, design, implementation, testing, and deployment

• • Defined stages ensure each phase is completed before moving to the next, with limited overlap or iteration between stages

• • A significant amount of upfront planning and documentation is required at the start of the project

• • Limited Flexibility makes it difficult to incorporate changes once a phase is complete, which can require revisiting earlier stages
    
    

Waterfall is great for outlining a clear structure for a project and defining phases provides predictability, which in turn allows roles and responsibilities to be clearly defined, and costs and timelines to be more effectively estimated. Another advantage of Waterfall is the emphasis on documentation, a benefit for projects in regulated industries.

As with Agile, Waterfall has downsides as well, including a lack of flexibility to adapt as requirements change which can lead to a slower response to new customer needs or market shifts. The heavy emphasis on documentation can hinder the ability to stay agile and move quickly.

The growing hybrid “Wagile” approach

Given the trade-offs, many organizations adopt a hybrid “Wagile” approach to combine the benefits of both Agile and Waterfall. The goal is to strike a balance between the structure and predictability of Waterfall for planning and governance, and the flexibility and customer focus of Agile. 

Why Use Wagile in Project Portfolio Management?

Using a Wagile approach to project portfolio management is best when managing more complex portfolios and projects with evolving requirements. For example, in Healthcare IT, software that manages patient data often faces regulatory challenges. Wagile provides a roadmap for compliance (Waterfall) while allowing for Agile iterations for feature updates.

For cross-functional teams spanning multiple disciplines Wagile works to provide a higher level structure (the Waterfall phases) as well as flexibility (via Agile sprints). This is also the case where diverse stakeholders with varying priorities are involved. Wagile can be used to establish and communicate clear timelines and deliverables while iterative feedback loops on the Agile side ensure stakeholders are informed and involved. 

In large project portfolios, Wagile provides a predictable framework for managing interdependencies among departments while allowing flexibility for individual project teams to adapt. This balance between high level structure and the ability for teams to stay nimble and act fast is at the core of a Wagile approach. 

Managing scope changes can also be easier with Wagile. By dividing the project into Waterfall-based phases with Agile cycles to incorporate mid-phase changes, the project team is able to adapt and overcome change without derailing progress. This greatly reduces the risk of scope and timeline creep.

What are the benefits of Wagile Methodology for Project Portfolio Management?

When Wagile is successfully implemented in a project portfolio, it delivers a lot of benefits:

 

1. Greater control is achieved by balancing structure and flexibility. Teams can adhere to overall project phases and timelines while reacting fast to change, speeding project progress
   
   
2. Communication improves as teams regularly collaborate and include stakeholders, driving better stakeholder management and engagement
   
   
3. A focus on early and continuous feedback helps identify and mitigate risks sooner
   
   
4. Adopting Wagile for projects that require rigorous planning but also need the ability to adapt to changing requirements enables scale within the project portfolio

Challenges and Drawbacks of Wagile in Project Portfolio Management

Of course, there are downsides and areas to watch for with any PPM process, no matter how agile. Here are a few of the challenges of working in Wagile project portfolio management:

 

1. Blended methodologies can be confusing and teams may struggle to switch between Agile and Waterfall
   
   
2. Goal inconsistency is a potential downside when Agile iterations aren’t aligned with longer term Waterfall goals 
   
   
3. Which leads to another challenge of using a Wagile approach: communication. Teams must understand how to collaborate despite their leaning toward one methodology or the other. This is especially important as it relates to communicating overarching project goals and measurements toward them
   
   
4. Stakeholder misalignment can also result from poor communications making it even more important to set proper governance rules and expectations around when and what to communicate to keep stakeholders informed

Best Practices for Implementing Wagile in Project Portfolio Management

As with any project management methodology, Wagile is only going to be successful if teams, stakeholders and executives are working together to make it work. Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting Wagile right:

 

1. Establish and communicate roles: Ensure that all team members understand the hybrid approach and their roles within it.
   
   
2. Create plans that balance structure and flexibility: Set up structured phases in your plans that map to your scope, resource, and timeline expectations. Be detailed, but build in room for iterative changes.
   
   
3. Ensure communications are strong between Waterfall and Agile teams, and among stakeholders and executives. Remember, communication can be done through many vehicles liek reporting, collaboration tools, real-time dashboards and email
   
   
4. Prioritize your projects: A best practice of project portfolio management is project prioritization as it helps to align projects with business priorities. Agile projects can be fit within the structured Waterfall planning.
   
   
5. Focus on continuous improvement: Hold regular review meetings to assess progress, gather feedback, and adjust plans as necessary. Gather feedback from stakeholders and executives, but also from the teams doing the work to understand where the Wagile process can be improved.
   
   
6. Leverage tools: A project and portfolio management (PPM) tool like WorkOtter is always going to make it easier and more efficient to manage and optimize every project in your portfolio.
   
   

Managing Stakeholder Expectations in a Wagile Environment

When managing the expectations of stakeholders in a Wagile Environment it is important to remember that not everyone involved in the project will be familiar or comfortable with a given methodology. Project Managers and PMO leaders will need to focus on regular and clear communication in order to keep everyone informed:

 

• • Set clear expectations up front by explaining how a hybrid approach will be handled and the benefits of Wagile for the project and/or PMO

• • Establish regular reporting on key metrics that pertain to both Agile and Waterfall in order to provide comprehensive updates and a unified approach to reporting

• • Customize communications as necessary, tailoring your information for different stakeholders based on their preferred methodology

• • In addition to understanding the risks associated with any project or at the portfolio level, be prepared to proactively address potential concerns, confusion, or blockers from stakeholders who may prefer one methodology over the other
    
    

An example of managing expectations from the banking industry involves how stakeholders were managed on two fronts. When implementing Wagile to overhaul its digital banking platform, the team leaned on the strengths of both methodologies. The core platform rebuild adhered to Waterfall principles, and status reports and milestone reporting were tracked and reported regularly ensuring consistent progress. Meanwhile, customer-facing features were developed iteratively using Agile, and included regular communication and user feedback from stakeholders.

 

Metrics and KPIs to Track in a Wagile Project Portfolio

As discussed above, tracking and reporting on metrics in a Wagile project portfolio needs to encompass both methodologies while making certain that all key project indicators (KPIs) from on-time delivery to stakeholder satisfaction are covered.

 

• • On-time delivery measures the percentage of projects delivered within their committed deadlines and balances the flexibility of Agile with the structured timelines of waterfall

Pro Tips: Regular spring and milestone retrospectives help identify delays; incorporating buggers for tasks that are prone to delays helps maintain transparency without sacrificing timelines; a software built for reporting initial project timelines against actual and projected provides leading indicators of on-time delivery risk

 

• • Resource utilization tracks the percentage of resource capacity being used across the portfolio, balancing workloads, ensuring skills are appropriately matched to projects, and providing visibility into the capacity to take on new work or adjust staffing to address risks or opportunities

 Pro Tips: Resource management tools like WorkOtter make staffing and capacity planning easier, keeping everyone informed as project demands shift; cross training staff on both Agile and Waterfall helps create understanding throughout the project teams

 

• • Measuring stakeholder satisfaction, including customers, teams and and executives, tracks the effectiveness of your hybrid approach. This might include surveys with Net Promoter Scores, or feedback sessions at key points in the project. 

Pro tips: Keeping open lines of communication with stakeholders will help with expectation alignment; Use that stakeholder feedback to inform and refine collaboration between Agile sprints and Waterfall phases

 

• • Project success rate is measured by understanding the percent of projects that achieve their defined objectives. Understanding “what good looks like” for each project is key to tracking benefit realization and provides a focus for risk analysis throughout each project.

Pro tips: Define and communicate success criteria at the outset; regularly review KPIs to identify and address risks; use Agile iterations to make adjustments that tie to overarching Waterfall phases

 

• • Budget variance is the measure of deviation between planned and actual costs across projects and is important because maintaining control of budget can be challenging in a hybrid methodology.

Pro tips: Start by defining financial controls and measures for both Agile and Waterfall tasks; watch for patterns in cost overruns to improve future estimates; use Agile sprints to track short-term spending and prevent future occurances

 

• • Addtiional metrics to track may include more granular items like cycle time, which measures the time it takes to complete a task or deliverable and aligns Agile with Waterfall timelines. Quality metrics may be measured to understand the amount of customer-reported issues or defects. Risk management effectiveness might also be tracked to monitor identified vs mitigated risks to improve proactive risk management.
    
    

As with any set of measures, using the information to inform decision-making and improve processes is the goal. Using a combination of the right tools (like PPM software with real-time reporting, robust resource management, and advances reporting) and collaboration among stakeholders and project teams, a cycle of continuous improvement can be established. And a wagile project portfolio can deliver more balanced and successful outcomes.

Real-World Examples of Wagile in Project Portfolio Management

A pharmaceutical firm was challenged with improving the delivery of multiple drug develpment projects, balancing the need to move as quickly as possible to get to market while maintaining oversight and control over regulatory processes. Adopting a Wagile process for the portfolio meant that regulatory compliance followed a Waterfall methodology, while Agile allowed teams to iterate on clinical trial processes. The result was an accelerated time-to-market for life-saving drugs while maintaining compliance.

For a leading telecommunications company, a Wagile approach was needed to meet the challenges of rolling out a 5G network. An intensive and long-term project  with many steps to completion, balancing long-term infrastructure planning with Waterfall was combined with Agile methods for software deployment in network optimization tools. The goal was to speed deployment cycles with minimal downtime while ensuring stakeholder alignment across all facets of the rollout.

It is important to note that in both examples, the need to balance structure, like maintaining compliance with industry standards, with the ability to receive and incorporate feedback and speed deployment are present and continually working together to realize the maximum benefit of every project.

Prism PPM: The Best Tool for Wagile Portfolio Management

Many Prism PPM customers use Wagile for their project portfolio management because of the ability to manage both Agile and Waterfall projects at a program and/or portfolio level. 

Built with a data structure designed to report and provide insights at the portfolio level, PMOs are empowered to do more and deliver more value while reducing risks across their projects.

Click the image above to get a free Wagile template

1. Project templates in Prism PPM provide pre-configured project setups that include work structures, task sequences, resource roles, and milestones. Templates serve as reusable frameworks, allowing for a consistent approach to project setup across different departments and initiatives. Get a free Wagile template here.
2. Resource management includes a single-pane of glass view of staffing in real-time, the ability to manage and track resource utilization across Agile and Waterfall projects, and an integration with Jira for Agile teams who don’t want to work inside the tools that work best for them
3. Customized and automated workflows keep teams operating within compliance frameworks while eliminating manual processes and potential risk from missed steps or approvals
4. Progress tracking at a portfolio level provides high-level “red, green, yellow” status with the ability to drill down into Agile and Waterfall project details to understand issues or identify opportunities
5. Working from a single tool and source of truth enables collaboration between Agile and Waterfall teams and stakeholders