Managing Multiple Agile and Waterfall Projects: Best Practices for Programme Oversight and Coordination

Managing Multiple Agile and Waterfall Projects: Best Practices for Programme Oversight and Coordination

Managing multiple projects within a programme is often a balancing act between structured frameworks and the flexibility to respond to emergent, dynamic needs. Whether you’re working with projects that follow a traditional waterfall approach or agile methods, the key to success is ensuring that oversight and coordination at the programme level are clear and effective. This is particularly important when dealing with projects and programmes that involve novelty and have never been done before.

Here’s a guide on how to effectively blend both waterfall (for structure, planning, and framework) and agile (for flexibility, adaptability, and quick iteration) approaches to manage multiple projects, while ensuring sufficient oversight and coordination through a steering committee.

The Hybrid Approach: Blending Waterfall and Agile

A blend of waterfall and agile approaches works well when managing complex programmes with varying project dynamics. While agile methods offer flexibility for responding to unforeseen challenges and novelty, waterfall provides the necessary structure for longer-term planning and accountability. The key is knowing when to apply each approach based on the project’s requirements.

Waterfall: Works well when the project involves well-defined deliverables, clear timelines, and set milestones. It provides the necessary governance, documentation, and predictability, especially for projects with established processes or clear objectives. It’s a good framework for managing resources, tracking progress, and ensuring that critical deliverables are met.

Agile: Ideal for projects where there’s uncertainty, rapid change, or need for quick iteration. Agile fosters flexibility and allows teams to pivot or adjust plans as new insights emerge. It’s especially useful when dealing with novel or experimental projects that require adaptive problem-solving.

By combining both approaches, you can benefit from the structure and discipline of waterfall while embracing the adaptability and innovation of agile.

The Importance of Consolidated Risk and Communication Plans

While each project might operate under different methodologies (waterfall or agile), consolidating risks and communication strategies at the programme level ensures smooth coordination and alignment across all projects. This is particularly crucial when managing multiple projects that may be tackling novel and complex challenges.

1. Centralized Risk Register:
While each individual project will maintain its own risk log (waterfall or agile), at the programme level, it’s essential to consolidate these risks into a centralized risk register. This register will capture not just the individual risks from each project but also any cross-project dependencies and overarching risks. By doing this:
You can identify risks that span multiple projects or have the potential for cascading effects.
Ensure that risks related to emergent or novel aspects of a project are adequately managed.
The steering committee gets an at-a-glance view of the overall programme health and can make informed decisions on how to allocate resources or re-prioritize efforts.

Recommendation: Use a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) system to easily communicate risk severity to the steering committee. This allows the committee to prioritize issues without getting bogged down by granular details.

2. Programme-Level Communication Plan:
The communication plan should integrate both agile flexibility and waterfall clarity, ensuring timely and consistent updates while remaining responsive to new developments. The steering committee will benefit from regular, clear communication that gives them an overview of all projects’ progress, risks, and emergent issues.

Best Practice: Include both fixed reporting cycles (monthly steering committee meetings) for status updates, and dynamic communication channels that adapt to emergent needs or urgent issues that may arise unexpectedly.

Striking the Balance Between Flexibility and Governance

A hybrid approach that incorporates both waterfall and agile requires a strong balance between rigid governance and the flexibility to adapt to novel challenges that may emerge throughout the programme.

1. Structured Framework with Agile Flexibility:
While waterfall provides a solid framework for setting timelines, defining scope, and tracking deliverables, agile methodology ensures that teams can pivot and adapt to unforeseen challenges or novel opportunities. The steering committee needs visibility into both structured deliverables and agile iterations.

Recommendation: Use a programme backlog that includes both planned milestones from the waterfall projects and the emergent, adaptive elements from the agile projects. This provides a centralized view for the steering committee to assess both current deliverables and future, adaptive priorities.

2. Agile Practices for Novelty:
When dealing with novel projects that have never been done before, agile allows for innovation and quick iteration. For projects that need to adapt to rapidly changing conditions, using sprints, iterations, and regular retrospectives will help manage risks and adapt to emerging requirements.

Best Practice: Use Scrum-of-Scrums to ensure that teams working on different projects (whether agile or waterfall) remain aligned. Each project team should have a representative attending the programme-level coordination meeting to report on progress, issues, and cross-project dependencies.

Prioritization and Decision-Making

Effective prioritization becomes even more critical when using a hybrid approach, especially when resources are shared across projects and timelines shift due to emergent needs. The steering committee needs to have clear decision-making criteria in place to balance the ongoing execution of structured plans with the ability to adapt to emerging priorities.

1. Prioritization Framework:
A Prioritization Matrix or Weighted Scoring Model helps the steering committee objectively assess each project based on a set of agreed-upon criteria. These criteria can include strategic alignment, risk level, resource requirements, and potential impact. This matrix can help steer decisions about which projects need to be expedited, delayed, or reprioritized.

Recommendation: Keep a clear record of decisions on project prioritization and re-prioritization so that the steering committee can make informed decisions quickly, even when circumstances change or new, emergent challenges arise.

2. Clear Accountability for Agile and Waterfall Projects:
For both agile and waterfall projects, it’s crucial to define clear accountability structures. In waterfall projects, this can be straightforward—there’s a project manager or lead responsible for each phase. For agile projects, Scrum Masters and Product Owners should be the points of contact for coordinating and managing the team’s focus.

Best Practice: Ensure that both agile and waterfall project leads report on risks, priorities, and deliverables in a standardized format at the programme level. This consistency will help the steering committee see the programme as a whole.

Reporting and Programme Oversight

Steering committee reports should focus on the high-level performance of the overall programme, incorporating both the structured milestones of waterfall projects and the fast-moving, adaptable elements of agile projects. The goal is to provide the committee with clear insights into how the programme is progressing, any risks that require attention, and any emergent issues that need to be addressed.

1. Use Dashboards for Reporting:
A programme dashboard that aggregates data from both waterfall and agile projects is invaluable. Dashboards should feature high-level metrics such as RAG status, project milestones, and risks, while also including agile metrics like velocity and burn-down charts to give the steering committee a full picture.

Recommendation: Keep reports concise and focused on what the steering committee needs to know. Use visuals and status updates to quickly convey both the current state and future outlook of the programme.

Summary of Tips for Managing Multiple Hybrid Projects:

1. Consolidate Risk and Communication Plans: Centralize risks from all projects and ensure communication is both structured and flexible to meet both agile and waterfall needs.
2. Balance Flexibility with Governance: Use a hybrid framework that provides structure for predictable projects while allowing flexibility for novel, emergent projects.
3. Prioritize and Make Decisions with a Framework: Use a clear prioritization matrix to objectively assess project needs, taking both agile responsiveness and waterfall predictability into account.
4. Ensure Clear Accountability: Define roles and responsibilities clearly across both agile and waterfall projects, ensuring decision-making is streamlined.
5. Use Dashboards for Oversight: Maintain a programme-level dashboard that combines both waterfall milestones and agile performance metrics to give the steering committee clear visibility.

By blending the best aspects of agile and waterfall project management, you can build a flexible, responsive programme that still maintains oversight, coordination, and strategic alignment across all projects. This hybrid approach will allow you to navigate uncertainty while ensuring that key programme goals are met.

About the Author:

My name is Tim Rogers. I am a coach, consultant, and change manager. My experience includes the corporatization of harbors and airports in a business capacity. In a sporting context, I’m a former Commonwealth Games triathlete and a four-time GB gold medalist (Coastal Rowing). I’m a rowing coach but also help people as a business and life coach. My immediate focus at the moment is on delivering technology solutions for a wealth management firm and, for another client, addressing the Health Protection needs for an Island Community. My more generalized interest is in helping people and organizations with change, with a real focus on the practical aspects of getting things done and achieving goals.