How hybrid project management is accelerating urban planning, infrastructure, and construction projects

Blended project management methods can be an ideal solution when the Agile approach cannot provide a precise budget or project timeline and the Waterfall methodology is too restrictive. Blended methods offer your team the freedom to plan projects while still adhering to structure, while Agile methodology doesn't make long-term commitments, and Waterfall is inflexible when changes need to be made. Each element can be combined individually for customized outcomes.

Implementing Agile principles into Waterfall can improve communication between stakeholders and create a dynamic environment that encourages project progress. Waterfall's shortcomings, such as lack of client collaboration or repetitive product reviews, can be addressed using hybrid methodologies. Teams using this style tend to reduce documentation significantly and only keep necessary files for faster completion times.

What is hybrid project management?

Hybrid project portfolio management, as its name implies, combines multiple styles. The hybrid project management approach emphasizes taking the best elements and applying them to relevant projects. These methods have become popular worldwide. Frequently, agile and waterfall methods are combined in some capacity. Let us take a closer look at each strategy to understand its practices.

What factors have contributed to the growth of hybrid project management solutions?

Over the years, urban planning has become technology driven. Town planning authorities over the world have been using satellite imaging, GPS mapping, terrain contouring data, etc. which come from several isolated systems. They also use a lot of public utility data which gives them demographic and behavioral patterns to account for. All this information needs to be managed and used to create plans. There are advanced tools for GIS-centric asset management and systems for electronic plan review for architects, engineers, and builders. Modern urban planning and construction industry needs to wrap its projects around such systems.

Project complexity is increasing across the infrastructure industry, which requires better management principles to guarantee they reach completion within time and budget.
Governments and civic infrastructure companies around the world are realizing that with emerging technologies and market participants, organizations must be more proactive in addressing emerging problems like the environment, public health, and safety.
Increased customer focus and speed have resulted in higher expectations from businesses. Hence, contractors must be able to quickly adjust to clients' evolving requirements.

How can infrastructure companies and contractors succeed with hybrid project management?

Plan first

For infrastructure companies who set off to deliver projects which may take 5 to 6 years and sometimes even a decade to complete, it becomes necessary to have a strong PPM foundation. It's evident that projects like those of telecom companies installing a new 5G infrastructure across multiple nations or a civic contractor company building road networks can not do so without having a system that stays functional and efficient throughout the course of the project. This is why such organizations need to plan ahead and invest in the right kind of project management tools.

Verify that your project portfolio management applications support hybrid project management.

Different software can be tailored to different management strategies. PPM solutions that work well for agile or waterfall projects might not be ideal for hybrid ones. Your project might need a range of tools, so instead of trying to fit everything into existing programs, find one hybrid project management software solution that meets all your requirements. External application integrations may also help tailor the PPM software according to hybrid project management needs.

Microsoft Project provides enterprise project management tools to manage agile projects. Traditional tasks can coexist alongside agile work using Project Online Desktop Client - part of Project Online - which has built-in agile capabilities. Project for the web allows you to take better decisions because all the information and metrics are at your fingertips. MS Project for the web is built on Microsoft Power Platform, which includes PowerApps and Microsoft Flow, PowerBI, and Microsoft Dataverse capabilities. MS Project for Web makes it easy to create reports that communicate progress, costs and billing, ROI, and more. Project for the Web is built on Microsoft 365 Groups, so it integrates with other Microsoft 365 products you already use so that you can collaborate on projects with your colleagues.

Training your team

For teams new to hybrid project management, training can be a learning experience. Your team needs to become acquainted with some processes and how they relate to existing ones; training is essential so everyone understands the procedure and can complete tasks and sprints as required. You also have an opportunity to ask questions and help resolve any issues before they arise, ensuring your project runs smoothly from there on out.

Learn skills through practice.

Your hybrid methods might involve both agile and waterfall elements, but there are some essential skills your team must master. Effective communication is paramount to moving the project along quickly and keeping everyone informed. Screen and camera recording abilities are necessary, as are planning abilities that provide direction and help reach objectives. These abilities can be combined with others to enable success in hybrid project management.

Check out your projects.

Assessing current project management performance and making improvements is the most effective way to enhance hybrid management. You can take a step back and assess what worked well and what needs improvement while also celebrating team accomplishments like QA testing or cyber security setups, as well as how effectively they use software or meet customer briefs. This also serves to motivate further investment in technology or personnel resources.

Discover what works for you.

Hybrid project management is more like a sliding scale between agile methods and waterfall rather than something fixed. If one combination doesn't suit your team or project, feel free to experiment with different features until you find the combination that works. By experimenting with remote or hybrid approaches, remote project management, or optimizing project management processes, you can complete projects faster and provide customers with better service.

Hybrid project management accelerates urban planning, infrastructure, and construction projects

Project managers have been engaged in discussions for nearly 20 years about the best way to apply an Agile approach to a space that is dominated by a waterfall. Agile challenges traditional project management theories that are linear and governance-focused. Agile accelerates product speed to market through empowered teams. Agile is free from documentation, tools, and processes. It is easy to enjoy Agile's dynamic meetings, empowered project teams, and fast-release schedules. However, this approach can be difficult to implement in highly regulated and complex diversified business environments, which are subject to strict audit and risk requirements. Hybrid approaches to distributed project management are able to combine the best of Traditional and Agile approaches.

Project governance and controls:

There are many levers within a Hybrid framework that can help reduce the burden of distributed or multi-disciplinary project governance. A well-constructed Hybrid framework can simplify the management of such projects and change management tools, such as approval processes or standard templates. Simplification can increase efficiency by eliminating variability and ensuring completeness. Usually, meetings go too long and project teams are too large for multi-department projects like construction and infrastructure projects. A hybrid framework can use key Agile concepts such as time-boxing or sprint-like releases. The process of time-boxing allows the project team to schedule a 15-30 minute meeting that focuses on a single goal at a time. Instead of one large, single release that moves all deliverables into production at once, Sprint-like releases are smaller, more frequent releases that move them incrementally. Hybrid approaches allow diversified organizations to focus on execution, while simultaneously simplifying project management and governance processes.

Resource optimization

Whether the project management is agile or not, it is a support function. Projects are not about people. They are built around strategic and tactical decisions in dynamic environments. To ensure the best interest of the organization, create constructive and healthy challenges in the project management space. This will ensure that excess capacity is kept at a minimum and that resources are only allocated to those projects that offer the greatest return for the organization.

In a hybrid environment, distributed organizations are engaged and encouraged to plan resource allocation at the project and enterprise levels. Although resource allocation can only take a little time, it can slow down delivery. High-level resource planning reduces project overruns and encourages the identification of project dependencies. It also focuses on optimizing scarce resources.

Use the Hybrid agile model in situations like:

A large multi-disciplinary project team may be using the traditional waterfall model and wants to move to an agile model. This is because the tools and processes are in use already, so it would be a significantly time-consuming process to switch to agile. This gives the opportunity to a hybrid approach, where some project work adopts agile practices while the rest follows the waterfall model.
Infrastructure and urban development projects are required to meet a large number of regulatory and compliance requirements. This requires strict governance and documentation. This is impossible with pure agile project management. Hybrid project management is a better choice because it allows for faster design, analysis, and planning. However, it maintains compliance with the waterfall model.
Hybrid project management can be a great option if the adoption of an agile culture is a problem in the organization.

Use a good PPM tool to manage your Agile, waterfall, and hybrid projects all through one tool

Although they may use different methods, agile, waterfall, and hybrid project management still uses the same resources and is accountable to the portfolio. A good project portfolio management software will give you the data and tools that you need to manage all your projects in one place, regardless of their methodology.

Good PPM solutions enable peripheral automation that allows integration with third-party applications such as BI dashboards to automatically fetch data and provide its visual representation for better decisions. It should be able to link projects back to the strategy and evaluate the alignment of the portfolio to the overall business strategy.

Some data may not be worth consolidating at the portfolio level. However, a good PPM tool can allow you to aggregate and calculate:

Costs (labor, materials, etc.)
Project progress.
Capacity (e.g., what kind of profile do I need for the tasks across the entire portfolio at once?)

Are you interested in hybrid project portfolio management?

Hybrid project management styles don't necessarily mean you must give up using Agile and Waterfall separately. The art of hybrid PM execution lies in finding the right approach; you can mix elements from various projects together and rework them as needed by your team or project. To stay organized, utilize enterprise project portfolio management solutions and submit projects before they're due for review.

Jordan Johnson

Jordan works as a Business Operations Manager at Advaiya. Based in Bellevue, Seattle, WA, Jordan works closely with clients, partners, and our team in India, helping to coordinate any aspect of the project lifecycle. He has over 8 years of diverse experience in hospitality, sales, and project coordination. He loves a beach vacation and can talk about TV shows all day.