OK, for both Scrum and Waterfall project management advocates, that title may sound heretical. But only if you're concerned with form more than function.
One can easily leverage good practices from alternate methodologies and frameworks into your primary project approach. A good example is User Stories.
In Scrum and other agile approaches, User Stories are the primary (only?) means by which product requirements are expressed. The basic formula is:
"As a <role>, I want to do <this> so that I can do <that>."
This gives great insight in the reason for each feature and function of the product. It provides great planning guidance. In Scrum, stories may start out very high level, but they are eventually split and decomposed into "Sprint-sized" stories, and possibly even smaller.
In Waterfall project management, these high-level stories can be leveraged to help identify requirements. It can be a challenge for a project manager to identify all the requirements for a project. One invariably forgets a whole branch of thought. Stories can help steer that creative thinking to identify requirements.
An important element in managing requirements is traceability. In waterfall project management, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) items are numbered in some fashion, and these numbers should be carried forward to all artifacts that involve delivery of that work package: cost codes, tasks, etc.
(For an excellent discussion on WBS and traceability, including some examples, grab a copy of Josh Nankivel's WBS Coach package; see link below.)
Stories could serve as the highest level of traceability. Imagine having all WBS items, all requirements, all cost codes, all tasks ultimately traceable back to a user story that explains why that element is valuable to the product!
Give it a try!
#pm #scrum #waterfall #wbs
Embedded Link
Your WBS Coach « CottagePM.com
I've written several times on the blog about the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) as a core tool for all project managers. I practiced a long time as a PM without using the WBS. I can see a big diff…
Google+: View post on Google+
Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.
Category: 
