Waterfall

Copy for Affinity Digital website, April 2015 [original article]

The Waterfall model of project management describes each phase of your project taking place chronologically, so that progress flows steadily downward like a waterfall.

Within this system, all requirement gathering and design is done during pre-contract operations by meeting our stakeholders on site, getting to know them and ensuring we thoroughly understand the project.

Waterfall is a time-tested system inherited from much older industries such as construction, where it was costly to go back and change something once it had been completed. So before any coding takes place, Affinity produce a Project Specification Document (PSD) which details the scope, specification and approach to be agreed by the client.

Because the waterfall system is sequential and linear, it is much easier for non-technical individuals to understand. It can therefore be the lingua franca between teams of developers, designers, and clients and make for a smoother-running project. There is no need for an MBA to understand the graphs, the waterfall method makes sense right on the page.

Affinity is able to deploy multiple waterfall methodologies, including PRINCE2®, PMP® & PMI® as well as other project management systems such as Agile, depending on the particular demands of the project.