All organizations can slot their activities into one of two categories: projects or new initiatives, and operations. Everything falls into one of those. To succeed, an organization must do both very well, and both must be supported by strong leadership, discipline, and visibility from top management in particular. For each type of activity, there are numerous ways to get the work done. Unfortunately, not every methodology aligns with every organization or a particular effort. When there’s a poor fit between project and work method, then inefficiency and poor use of resources result.

The quickest and easiest organizational gains can often be found by examining the organization’s methodologies when executing projects. More than 76 percent of organizations use a single methodology to provide the actionable framework. The most common is a waterfall model where activities are done in a four- or five-phase sequence: analysis, design, development, testing, and deployment. This highly linear approach to project execution is the oldest and has its origins in the engineering world.

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