13 Effective Project Management Methodologies to Simplify Processes

A successful recipe never fails. Likewise, a successful project management methodology never fails.

A whiff of aromatic spices enters your room. Hypnotized, you follow the aroma that leads you into the kitchen of your home.

Your mother is making eggplant curry. You beg her to let you taste it. As you do, the blissful taste takes you to seventh heaven.

What you saw was a finished curry. But what you haven't seen is the effort. From washing eggplants to cleaning them to cooking them over an open fire, curry was a concoction of several processes. A bit like a project, which requires an appropriate project management methodology.

In the business scenario, project management methodology is an assessment of a company's financial and team skills. It contains a site map, a project summary, the main actors of a project and the main synchronization of the teams involved. Software projects differ from finance or HR projects, but the end goal is the same; profit.

Over time, project managers have developed a plethora of methodologies to orchestrate and control their projects, with the inclusion of project management software.

What is a project management methodology?

A project management methodology is a drawn roadmap that leads to the successful execution of a project. It contains the tools, software, guidelines, and resources project managers need to successfully plan, manage, and monitor deliverables.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the list of possible methodologies is constantly growing as innovative leaders brainstorm new ways to conduct their projects effectively. It can feel overwhelming to just look at a list of these methodologies, wondering which one will lead your team to project success.

The first step is to define your project requirements. Analyze your team's bandwidth, resources, software requirements, time and manpower. All of these requirements fit nicely into a project management framework.

What is a Project Management Framework?

The project framework consists of important steps, guidelines, and rules that shape how your project unfolds. It draws a fine line between each individual process so that no process overlaps. Each member of the project team is assigned a task by the project manager, which they must complete on time.

It can be grouped into six main steps.

Project Initiation: The first stage involves research, ideation, feasibility analysis and prototyping of the project structure. Team members receive a brief and assigned responsibilities. Each member of the team sows an idea, on which the management team reflects. Planning: In this stage, you gather the necessary requirements for the project, collaborate with team members, and set a budget. You appoint a leader who will drive the operational aspect of your project. You also plan short and long term goals and how you want to achieve them. Execution: This stage consists of the actual production of project deliverables, content, and project design inventory. Each team member owns and completes their tasks from start to finish. Management: This stage focuses on creating repositories of knowledge, documentation, and key progress metrics. As you launch the stages of your project, share the learnings with your teams. This motivates your teams to perform with more enthusiasm. Review: Project managers finalize drafts, prepare for launch, and perform testing and trials. This is the stage where the efforts of project contributors are rewarded and appreciated.

Once you've prepared a comprehensive plan, it's time to figure out which project management method will help you achieve those goals faster.

13 Common Project Management Methodologies

Every list you find on the internet of types of project management methodology will vary. This is because this term is quite fluid and the definition of "methodology" is different for everyone.

In this article, I've compiled 13 of what I think are the most commonly used types of methodology in hopes that you can find something that works well for your team.

1.Kanban

Kanban falls under lean project management and is most closely compared to the Scrum methodology. Kanban focuses on maintaining strict processes so that the project runs smoothly.

Kanban requires real-time communication through what is called a Kanban board, a project management tool...