{"id":432,"date":"2014-06-07T18:02:21","date_gmt":"2014-06-07T18:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/?p=432"},"modified":"2015-03-09T16:17:09","modified_gmt":"2015-03-09T16:17:09","slug":"when-methodology-is-diverted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/?p=432","title":{"rendered":"When methodology is diverted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='watch-action'><div class='watch-position align-right'><div class='action-like'><a class='lbg-style1 like-432 jlk' href='javascript:void(0)' data-task='like' data-post_id='432' data-nonce='3e49a96320' rel='nofollow'><img src='https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/wti-like-post\/images\/pixel.gif' title='Like' \/><span class='lc-432 lc'>46<\/span><\/a><\/div><\/div> <div class='status-432 status align-right'><\/div><\/div><div class='wti-clear'><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-717\" style=\"border: 1px solid lightgrey;\" src=\"http:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/26-146x110.jpg\" alt=\"26\" width=\"146\" height=\"110\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/26-146x110.jpg 146w, https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/26-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/26.jpg 626w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 146px) 100vw, 146px\" \/>Methodology is a set of methods and procedures describing how to reach a result. Every enterprise developing products or services makes use of various development methodologies <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/span> but they are sometimes diverted from their original intent, for example for project management <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[2]<\/sup><\/span> purposes.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>As for projects, the application of methodology produces \u201cdeliverables\u201d <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[3]<\/sup><\/span>, for example specifications documents like customer requirements, functional analysis, high level design, etc. These documents are sometimes used as a mean to measure the progression of the project; their presence being the signal that a project phase is completed, that a project milestone <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[4]<\/sup><\/span> is reached.<\/p>\n<p>But what happens when the specification documents content changes or evolves ? What is the impact of these changes on the project ? Does it mean that the project phases that were completed aren\u2019t anymore and that we go round in circles ?<\/p>\n<p>The reality is such that specification documents often change because the customer needs evolve over time or e.g. because an \u201cagile\u201d <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[5]<\/sup><\/span> development methodology is being used which is iterative and incremental by nature. \u00a0In each of these cases the specification documents evolve during the project lifetime, consequently using these methodology deliverables as a measurement of a project progression is not ideal.<\/p>\n<p>In such situation, the major side effect is to implicitly and indirectly promote a \u201cwaterfall\u201d <span style=\"font-size: x-small;\"><sup>[6]<\/sup><\/span> development approach which is less compatible with an agile approach aiming at addressing better and faster customer needs.<\/p>\n<p>An additional factor reinforcing the waterfall approach derives from the deliverables lifecycle; each document update must be approved by all the project stakeholders: customers, product manager, \u00a0third parties, developers,\u00a0 &#8230; \u00a0Constantly re-approving the same documents may induce the impression in the minds of some stakeholders less literate about \u00a0&#8220;development methodology&#8221; that the project is not progressing well. They are consequently more reluctant to approve this n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\"><sup>th<\/sup><\/span> version of the document and tend to push towards a stabilisation of its content.<\/p>\n<p>In conclusion methodology cannot be substituted to project management tools and deliverables must not be confused with milestones. It is the project management toolbox that must be adapted to the characteristics of the chosen development methodology.<\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 11px;\">[1] <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Software_development_methodology\">Software development methodology, Wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\"> [2] <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Project_management\">Project management, Wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\"> [3] <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Deliverable\">Deliverable, Wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\"> [4] <a href=\"http:\/\/www.businessdictionary.com\/definition\/milestone.html\">Project milestone definition, BusinessDictionary.com<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\"> [5] <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Agile_software_development\">Agile software development, Wikipedia<\/a><\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 11px;\"> [6] <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Waterfall_model\">Waterfall model, Wikipedia<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>46 Methodology is a set of methods and procedures describing how to reach a result. Every enterprise developing products or services makes use of various development methodologies [1] but they are sometimes diverted from their original intent, for example for project management [2] purposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-methodology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":979,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.michelgoes.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}