Project Management Methodologies
There are as many ways to manage a project as there are projects and project managers. But over the years, some project management methodologies have acquired large bodies of users; been formalized, elaborated, and fine-tuned. A handful of project management methodologies are considered to be "professional standards" and "best practices". Here is a brief overview of major project management methodologies.
GTD stands for "Getting Things Done," a project management methodology formalized by David Allen in 2002. GTD stresses task-management tools to keep track of ongoing activities, freeing managers and workers to "get things done" instead of trying to remember what needs to be done. GTD employs timescales called the "six levels of focus" to tell you where your attention needs to be; e.g., "right now," "next week," or "before the next Olympics begin." Weekly reviews on each timescale are part of the GTD process, so if you like meetings you'll love GTD. GTD lends itself well to Web-based project management tools.
RUP -- the "Rational Unified Process" project management methodology -- was created by Rational Software as the framework for a desktop project management software package. The key concepts in RUP are Roles, Work Products, and Tasks. RUP projects follow four phases: Inception, Elaboration, Construction, and Transition. The Phase and Iteration Plan has many subcomponents; a lot of planning goes on in a RUP project.
SCRUM was first developed for software development project management, but it has migrated into other types of projects. SCRUM is not an acronym, but a word borrowed from rugby. Like a rugby team, a SCRUM project moves in short, repeated increments: do something, measure and evaluate results, figure out something new to do, do something, etc. Frequent checks of "where are we" help keep the SCRUM project moving in the right direction and minimize drift from the charted course.
PMBOK is the Project Management Body of Knowledge, a vast collection of best practices developed and maintained by the PMI (Project Management Institute), the worldwide certification authority for Project Management Professionals (PMPs). It's not so much a project management methodology per se, but PMPs turn to the PMBOK for guidance on every aspect of managing a project.
Other popular project management methodologies include Agile, Rapid Application Development, the Spiral Model, the Waterfall Model, and Six Sigma. Each methodology has its adherents and is best suited for certain types of projects. A well-rounded PMP will be familiar with the leading project management methodologies.