Which Project Management Style Suits Your Business?

Clients have always expected on-time delivery and frequent communication about projects. But as business technology has become universal and even more powerful, those expectations have expanded. People have more information at their fingertips, so they expect your firm to provide quick, often on-demand updates.

Confidently adopting and sticking to a project management style can help your team meet — or exceed — your clients’ expectations. 

We’ll briefly review three popular project management methods, then discuss how to determine which might work best for your business.

The 3 Most Common Project Management Methods

While there are numerous approaches to project management, these are the three you might be most familiar with. They’re also the most likely to adhere to the requirements of a service-based project.

• The waterfall method requires that one task be completed before the next one can begin. Before project kickoff, sequential phases are mapped out to clarify the project’s scope. This strategy allows little room for flexibility once the project is underway.
• The agile project management method is an iterative approach that starts with the client's needs. Teams break projects down into time intervals called sprints, then complete a specific unit of work in a given sprint. An agile method can be successful if a client is available to offer revisions as work is completed. According to Capterra, a minimum of 71% of US businesses use agile methodologies.
• Adaptive project management helps project managers adjust to unknowns and potential risks. Teams get the chance to prepare and respond to unexpected shifts in project direction. Team members, customers and stakeholders must communicate effectively for the adaptive method to work.

Dive deeper into each of these project management methodologies.

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Matching With a Project Management Style

Before selecting a methodology, it’s best to do a full inventory of your risk tolerance, resources and more. Consult the following chart to see if a particular method stands out as most appropriate for your circumstances. 

A little

A moderate amount

A lot

How much risk are you willing to take on?

Adaptive

Agile

Waterfall

What depth of resources do you have for project planning?

Waterfall

Adaptive

Agile

How much turnover do you have?

Agile

Adaptive

Waterfall

How often do your clients expect project updates?

Waterfall

Adaptive

Agile

How much does your team need to change project scope?

Waterfall

Agile

Adaptive

To what extent do you need quantitative analysis?

Waterfall

Agile

Adaptive

Each project management method requires active internal and external collaboration, though in slightly different ways. It’s key that your entire team and clients understand their roles in the approach you select.

READ NEXT: 25 Pro Tips for Profitable Project Management

Drawbacks of Traditional Project Management

Project management styles have come a long way. In the days when manual recordkeeping was the only choice, the waterfall approach was the most common way most teams handled client work. 

While this traditional project management style could still be right for your business, you should consider some of the potential drawbacks for a service business in particular:

• A set period of time is allocated for each task, which doesn’t allow your team to adjust to last-minute, high-priority projects.
• Clients don’t feel like active participants in their projects, since tasks and timelines are set up well in advance and quite inflexible.
• This approach doesn’t work for complex or nontraditional projects because of its sequential nature.

Modern Project Management Is Automation-Driven 

In contrast to traditional project management, modern project management tends to look more like an agile or adaptive method. Especially post-pandemic, many service businesses have found it necessary to follow a more flexible approach to project management. You may be expanding your service menu or taking on more short-term or one-time projects than you once did.

One clear benefit of using agile or adaptive methodologies is that they sync well with smart automated software. With a platform that logs time, tracks utilization and offers increased visibility over your team and projects, you’ll be able to see when a certain task is putting a project at risk of going over budget. You can address the issue before any real damage is done to your bottom line or client relationships.

The right smart platform will also automatically save client data, calculate billable hours and budgets and update timelines for you automatically. Instead of having all of your tasks fully outlined at the start of each project (as they are in true waterfall fashion), smart technology provides a more flexible method that allows you to start a project without having a complete idea of the end result. You can easily make adjustments to your project as the vision or needs of a client change.

Ready to make some changes to your project management approach? Prioritize profitability with 25 pro tips for how to set goals, track projects, manage your team and choose the right supporting tools.