Hybrid Agile Methodology: Spiral, V-Model & More

Hybrid Project Management: Spiral, V-Model, & More

Based on the project management processes used in other industries, the traditional Waterfall approach to software development follows a sequential set of steps from requirements to release. Organizations that can’t use pure Agile methodologies have adapted Agile ideas for use in Waterfall projects, creating new Hybrid methodologies.

What is Hybrid Project Management?

As the name suggests, Hybrid project management is an approach that combines elements of traditional (often Waterfall) and Agile methodologies. It recognizes that not all projects can fit neatly into a single methodology, and instead provides customizable frameworks that allow project managers to cherry-pick the most suitable practices from different methodologies to meet their specific project needs. In practice, a Hybrid model might involve using Waterfall for early-stage planning, documentation, and design, but switching to Agile for iterative development and testing phases.

Waterfall vs. Hybrid vs. Agile Project Management

Hybrid Project Management blends aspects of both Waterfall and Agile methodologies, offering a balanced approach to project management that isn’t too rigid or too free-form. Compared to Waterfall, Hybrid allows for more adaptability mid-project without requiring a complete reset. Compared to Agile, it incorporates a more comprehensive early-stage structure. This blend helps teams manage risks more effectively, providing the adaptability of Agile alongside the predictability of Waterfall.

Hybrid Methodologies

There are many different Hybrid methodologies that integrate feedback mechanisms into the traditional Waterfall model. This mitigates technical and functional shortcomings in the original design that are discovered during development and can be more quickly incorporated. Some of the more popular Hybrid models include:

V-Model

Spiral Model

Iterative and Incremental

V-Model Methodology

The V-Model of software development uses a modified Waterfall to provide a sequential development methodology that has feedback mechanisms between the pre-development and post-development phases of the lifecycle:

Instead of moving down in a linear “waterfall,” the process steps are bent upwards after the coding phase, to form the V shape that it gets its name from. The V-Model demonstrates the relationships between each phase of the development life cycle and its associated phase of testing. The horizontal and vertical axes represent time or project completeness (from left to right) and level of abstraction (from top to bottom), respectively.

Spiral Methodology

The spiral model is a risk-driven process model generator for software projects. Based on the unique risk patterns of a given project, the spiral model guides a team to adopt elements of one or more process models, such as incremental, Waterfall, or evolutionary prototyping.

The key distinguishing characteristics of the Spiral Model are that each iteration of the system follows the four key phases that are designed to identify and mitigate risks:

Determining the objectives, planning the scope of the increment

Prototyping, experimentation, and research to identify and resolve potential risks (technical, conceptual, etc.)

Design, develop, and test the increment

Release and monitor the increment, using feedback to help plan the next iteration

The iterative nature of the Spiral model makes it an early example of a Hybrid Waterfall-Agile methodology and follows many characteristics (prototypes, experiments/spike solutions) that exist in other more recent pure Agile methodologies such as Scrum, XP, and AUP.

Iterative & Incremental Development

Iterative and Incremental development is any combination of both iterative design or iterative method and incremental build model for software development:

The use of iterative/incremental development attempts to mitigate the main criticisms of Waterfall and sequential development methodologies because the entire project is broken down into smaller increments or iterations that can apply the lessons learned from the previous iteration.

Learning comes from both the development and use of the system, where possible key steps in the process start with a simple implementation of a subset of the software requirements and iteratively enhance the evolving versions until the full system is implemented. At each iteration, design modifications are made and new functional capabilities are added.

Although iterative development may look at first glance like Agile development, there are several key differences. The primary one is that iterative development generally follows the same steps as Waterfall, just happening in smaller units of time. With Agile. you have a potentially shippable product at all times but this is not necessarily the case with iterative development.

Why Choose SpiraTeam for Hybrid Projects?

When deciding on a requirements management, project management, or test management tool, you often have to make a false choice between tools built for Waterfall projects and tools built for Agile projects. With SpiraTeam, you have the flexibility to choose a single system that can be used for Agile, Waterfall, and Hybrid projects.

For Waterfall (or Waterfall-leaning) projects, you can use a Gantt chart to view releases and tasks scheduled over time (with progress indicators):

You can then expand one more level to see the tasks under each release and phase (in green) that illustrate the completion percentage of each of the tasks and overall phase.

SpiraTeam also provides a PERT chart option to decompose the releases, phases, iterations, and sprints into a hierarchical diagram. Here, you can see the dependencies and composition of the work in each release:

For Hybrid projects, you can use both views (requirements hierarchy and planning board, release Gantt charts, PERT charts) at the same time using the same data.

Releases, Iterations, Phases?

In a traditional Waterfall project, you have phases such as:

Design

Develop

Test

In a Hybrid project you may have both phases for the upfront work and then Agile-like iterations after the initial design and concept work have been done:

SpiraTeam lets you have releases that contain both phases and iterations:

Because of this, SpiraTeam is the most powerful and flexible ALM tool on the market:

SpiraTeam	Waterfall	Spiral	V-Model	Iterative
Epic	Business Requirement	Concept	Business Requirement	Initial Requirement
Requirement	System Requirement	Requirement	System Requirement	Detailed Requirement
Task	Task	Task	Task	Task
Release	Release	Release	Release	Release
Sprint	-	Increment / Spiral	-	Iteration
Phase	Phase	-	Phase	-
Test Case	Test Case	Test Case	Test Case	Test Case

SpiraTeam comes with reporting dashboards of key project quality and progress indicators like requirements test coverage, task progress, project velocity, and top issues — all in one consolidated view:

The top reasons that our customers choose SpiraTeam over other solutions are:

It’s a complete solution that includes requirements management, release planning, iteration planning, task estimation, and defect tracking — all fully integrated from day one.

A highly intuitive web application that provides a complete picture of a project’s status and health but only requires a browser to access.

Methodology-agnostic and equally effective for Waterfall, Hybrid, and Agile projects.

Leverages your existing technology investments by integrating with many third-party defect-management systems and software configuration management (SCM) systems.

In addition, we provide superb technical support that ensures inquiries and questions are dealt with in a timely and professional manner.