Theoretical comparative analysis of cascading, iterative, and hybrid approaches to IT project life cycle management

Abstract

The absence of a common and universal approach to IT project management allows us to formulate a problem to analyze and study when choosing the most efficient project management methodology. The relatively small number of scientific works summarizing practical experience of a theoretical approach allowed us to formulate a generalized mathematical model for a common IT project lifecycle estimation in this work using waterfall, agile or hybrid approaches for the project management. Based on the advantages and disadvantages of existing methodologies that we revealed, it appears that use of agile approaches within stages of the cascade methodology approach improves the process of IT project management compared to a pure cascade implementation. Moreover, the recursive application of an iterative approach at certain stages of the project implementation worsens the characteristics of the project life cycle and can be used only to reduce a certain class of project risks. The results of our study allow us to propose a semi-empirical method for project planning estimation accuracy and attainability of the declared project implementation characteristics. All of this should have a positive impact on the effectiveness of the IT project management strategy choice.