Il existe de nombreuses méthodologies et cadres de gestion de projets conçus pour vous aider à mener différents types de projets. Mais comment savoir lesquels sont les mieux adaptés à vos besoins ?
Dans cette section, nous allons vous présenter les méthodologies de gestion de projets les plus populaires et vous donner des conseils pour choisir la méthode qui répondra le mieux à vos besoins.
What Is a Project Management Methodology?
A project management methodology is a structured approach to project management. It includes guiding principles and processes to help plan and execute a project. Common PM methodologies include Agile, Waterfall, Scrum, Kanban, and PRINCE2, but teams may use a hybrid approach that combines different methods.
Check out this video to learn about five of the most popular project management methodologies.
Learn about the basics of project management in this comprehensive guide.
The Top 12 Project Management Methodologies
The top 12 project management methodologies are Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, critical path method (CPM), critical chain project management (CCPM), Lean, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, PMBOK, and PRINCE2. Project managers often use a combination of methods to suit their team, organization, and project.
Here are the uses, pros, and cons of the top project management methodologies:
Waterfall
Waterfall is a linear, phase‑driven approach to project management that involves carefully planned, sequential stages, including research, design, planning, production, testing, and deployment. There is minimal overlap between stages, and mid-project changes can be difficult or costly to incorporate. This method suits relatively predictable, large-scale projects with stable, well‑defined requirements and clear regulatory standards, like infrastructure projects.
Pros
Cons
Clear structure and predictable milestones
Budgets and timelines planned upfront
Strong documentation and audit trail
Relatively inflexible in case of scope change, increasing risk of rework
Long time-to-market and limited early deliverables
Agile
Agile is an iterative, customer‑centric approach to project management. It focuses on delivering work in small increments using continuous feedback and adaptation. It is useful for knowledge-work and creative projects, such as product design or software development, where stakeholder requirements often change and teams need to deliver value quickly.
Pros
Cons
Highly adaptable to changing needs
Early and continuous delivery of value
Strong stakeholder collaboration
Less predictability in scope and schedule
Needs disciplined culture and experienced teams
Can lead to scope creep if not managed
Read more about how Agile workflows can improve collaboration and delivery. This guide also includes everything you need to know about Agile project management.
Scrum
Scrum is a type of Agile framework that organizes work into fixed‑length sprints with defined project roles and regular inspect‑and‑adapt cycles. It is ideal for teams that need structured iterations, especially in complex product or software environments.
Pros
Cons
Structured delivery cadence
Clear roles and events for better accountability
Regular feedback and incremental improvements
Time-boxed sprint structures can feel rigid
Can be challenging to scale without additional frameworks
Kanban
Kanban focuses on optimizing workflows by visualizing them on a board. The goal is to limit work in progress (WIP) without time‑boxed iterations. Kanban works well for support teams, operations, and continuous delivery environments where demand is variable and work arrives continuously.
Pros
Cons
Lightweight and easy to adopt
Visibility into bottlenecks
Continuous delivery with minimal process overhead
Can become chaotic without strong WIP limits
Fewer prescribed roles and ceremonies than Scrum
Discover more about how the Kanban methodology can support your next initiative.
Scrumban
Scrumban is a hybrid Agile approach that blends Scrum’s structured roles and cadence with Kanban’s visual board, work-in-progress limits, and flow-based work management. It helps teams build on Scrum while providing more flexibility to handle fluctuating priorities or mixed project and support work.
Pros
Cons
Combines Scrum’s discipline with Kanban’s focus on flow
Useful for teams with mixed project and support work
Highly adaptable to shifting priorities
Hybrid rules can be confusing if not standardized
Requires careful design to balance both frameworks
Risk of under‑specifying planning, roles, or feedback cadences
This guide helps teams navigate the middle ground between Scrum and Kanban with the Scrumban methodology.
Critical Path Method
The critical path method (CPM) is a scheduling technique that maps all task timelines and dependencies. IT identifies the longest sequence of tasks that determines the minimum project duration. Teams working on strict timelines, such as construction or engineering teams, use CPM to identify and prevent potential delays.
Pros
Cons
Combines Scrum’s discipline with Kanban’s focus on flow
Useful for teams with mixed project and support work
Highly adaptable to shifting priorities
Hybrid rules can be confusing if not standardized
Requires careful design to balance both frameworks
Risk of under‑specifying planning, roles, or feedback cadences
This guide helps teams understand how to effectively use the critical path method to ensure on-time delivery.
Critical Chain Project Management
Critical chain project management (CCPM) is an extension of CPM, with additional consideration of resource constraints and buffers. It’s especially useful for projects or multi-project environments where shared resources and uncertainty make traditional critical path planning likely to overpromise on delivery dates.
Pros
Cons
Accounts for resource constraints
Aims to reduce procrastination and hidden slack by focusing on project buffers
Can improve on‑time delivery
More complex to set up and monitor
Requires discipline around buffer management
Less familiar to many organizations than CPM
Learn about how the critical chain method can help you manage resource constraints in this guide.
Lean
Lean is a value‑oriented methodology focused on eliminating waste to improve flow and maximize customer value. Waste can include wait times, overprocessing, unnecessary documentation and reporting, and more. Lean is common in industries like manufacturing, operations, and service delivery, and allows teams to streamline repeatable processes and reduce lead times.
Pros
Cons
Strong focus on efficiency and waste reduction
Improves throughput and response time
Empowers teams to identify and fix process issues
Risk of prioritizing efficiency over quality, flexibility, or innovation
Requires continuous improvement discipline
This guide to Lean project management can help you understand how to effectively apply this methodology to reduce waste in your team or organization.
Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a data‑driven project management methodology that focuses on minimizing defects, reducing variation, and improving process quality. It is best applied in environments where high‑quality outputs, regulatory compliance, and process stability are critical, such as manufacturing or regulated services.
Pros
Cons
Strongly data‑driven with evidence‑based decisions
Improves quality, process consistency, and customer satisfaction
Training‑ and resource‑intensive
May feel bureaucratic or too metrics-focused for smaller or more creative projects
Get started with Six Sigma by reading this beginner’s guide.
Lean Six Sigma
Lean Six Sigma combines the waste-reduction and flow of Lean with the statistical rigor and defect‑reduction tools of Six Sigma. It is particularly useful for large‑scale process‑improvement initiatives where organizations need to improve both efficiency and quality across workflows.
Pros
Cons
Leverages both waste‑reduction and defect‑reduction
Alignment between efficiency and quality
Well‑suited for large, cross‑functional improvement programs
More training- and certification‑heavy than Lean or Six Sigma alone
Requires significant organizational commitment
Find out more about how to apply Lean Six Sigma to your next process-improvement initiative.
PMBOK
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is PMI’s standard guide to project management. It defines standard practices for initiating, planning, executing, monitoring, and closing projects. PMBOK is best used where organizations need a common lexicon, governance, and structured project management lifecycle. Teams often use it in tandem with other methods, such as Agile or Waterfall.
Pros
Cons
Provides a comprehensive, standardized project management vocabulary
Supports strong governance and stakeholder oversight
Integrates well with other methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall)
Can feel overly bureaucratic or process-heavy for small or highly iterative projects
Requires adaptation to fit fast‑moving or innovative environments
PRINCE2
PRINCE2, or Projects IN Controlled Environments, is a structured project management methodology that focuses on process and clear roles and stages for initiating, managing, and closing projects. It involves repeatable steps and phases, continued business justification, and strong controls and documentation. Teams use it in several contexts, including government programs, IT, and regulated industries.
Pros
Cons
Clear roles, responsibilities, and governance
Strong emphasis on business‑case justification throughout the project lifecycle
Well‑documented processes and templates that support onboarding and auditing
Can become documentation-heavy or process-heavy if applied too rigidly
May feel inflexible for highly uncertain or fast‑changing work
Requires training and cultural buy‑in to implement effectively
Project management methodologies matter because they give teams a structured way to execute projects. Each methodology uses a shared language and set of roles and tools that help teams collaborate, plan and control projects, manage risks and resources, and minimize waste and confusion. The right methodology can help managers deliver higher-quality projects on time and within budget.
Different projects require different project management methods. It’s essential to choose the one that best suits your context, team, organization, and industry. Some projects may have to prioritize stability, making Waterfall or PRINCE2 more suitable, while others may need Agile or Scrum to allow for creativity or flexibility.
“You’ve got to assess the nature of your project before you decide what methodology you’re going to use. Sometimes people make the wrong choice.”
Pinnington gives an example of a large retail and logistics company where he worked in the past. The company was building new warehouses to reshape in-store logistics using a classic Waterfall sequence: selecting and inspecting land, designing and constructing warehouses, installing automation, and stocking supplies to move to stores.
“Some bright spark somewhere high up in the management chain said, ‘We’re going to change from a Waterfall method to an Agile method,’” Pinnington says. “Then they tried to fit the Agile methodology to what we did, and it really didn’t work because you can’t build a warehouse on an iterative basis.”
In this example, the Agile method failed because the work was heavily interdependent and sequential. The change was also implemented in a top-down way by a management that didn’t understand the context of the project. It needed more of a stage-gate approach to serve the regulatory and physical requirements of warehouse logistics, rather than the sprint format of Agile.
How to Choose the Right Project Management Methodology
To choose the right project management methodology, assess your project’s context, team, organization, and industry requirements. Understand resource constraints and stakeholder expectations, then evaluate the pros and cons of different methods. Collaborate with your team to determine the most suitable approach before implementing and monitoring your method.
Here is a step-by-step process of identifying the best project management method for your project:
Understand Your Project Needs
Before you look at methodologies, get a clear picture of what your project actually is and where it sits in your organization. Determine your goals and priorities, industry and regulatory requirements, size and complexity, organizational culture and structure, and team preferences. Clarify whether the work is one-off or ongoing.
Correctly diagnosing the project is essential. “What is the nature of the work? What are you trying to deliver?” says Pinnington. For example, some projects begin with very clear demands, while others are by nature more iterative. “Is it something where you know what you want, and can define a set of product requirements? Or is it something where the customer doesn’t really know what they want?”
Clarify Resource Constraints
Analyze the key resources your project depends on. Consider your budget, timelines, staffing, tools, and tolerance for risk or rework. How flexible is your schedule? How much planning is required up front? What are your key deliverables and deadlines? Does the project have a lot of dependencies and a clear critical path? How much training would your team need to use a new methodology effectively?
Evaluate Teams and Stakeholders
The way people work together strongly influences which methodology will succeed. Look closely at who will be involved in the project, how specialized they are, and how they work. Larger teams or groups of teams may need scaled Agile or strong PRINCE2 governance, while smaller teams may indeed Scrum or Kanban. Technical work is better suited to more predictable and structured methods, while innovative work may require iterative methods.
Evaluate stakeholder involvement and team dynamics. If they are collaborative and prefer to give frequent feedback, Agile, Scrum, and Kanban are suitable. If they expect fixed plans and scope with formal sign-offs, more linear methods may be a better fit.
Evaluate Leading Methods
Once you understand your project’s variables, compare the main methodologies. How will each influence your budget, timeline, execution, overhead, and scope? Which method is the least disruptive to your team and organization, and which promises the most effective value delivery?
Make a Collective Decision
It’s important to consult all stakeholders and team leaders when deciding on your approach. Management may not always understand the nature of the work enough to know the best method. Bring in key team members, project sponsors, and stakeholders for a short workshop or review session. Present your evaluation of the different methods and suitable options, including project variables and constraints, and use their feedback to amend or refine your choice. This improves buy-in and reduces the risk of having to restart a project or program in the future.
Implement and Monitor
When rolling out the methodology, document your processes and roles. Educate everyone on new workflows through guides or training, and set up infrastructure for the method. Track indicators and monitor the benefits and frictions caused by your processes.
Example: Choosing a Methodology Based on Customer Needs
When choosing the right project management methodology for your situation, it’s also important to know your customers — what they need and where they come from. Pinnington gives the example of homebuilding in his native England and his place of residence, Germany.
In the UK, large developers build nearly-identical homes, he says. “There’ll be smaller houses, medium houses, and large houses, but they will pretty much be similar, maybe five or six variations, and they’ll use a Waterfall method because they know what they’re building.”
By contrast, in Germany, homebuyers often acquire their land and approach one of dozens of builders who each have their own specialties, providing custom requirements and models on which to base their designs. “That’s more like an Agile method,” he says. “There are lots of things you can do in the German market, whereas in the UK, you are given a house as a template. So it very much depends on your marketplace, your context.”
How Smartsheet Can Support the PM Methodology of Your Choice
Smartsheet is an intelligent work management solution that supports project managers across methodologies. Teams can use Smartsheet to support Waterfall project plans with Gantt charts, Agile and Scrum work with boards and dashboards, Kanban workflows with visual task management, and hybrid methodologies with configurable views, workflows, reports, and approvals.
The most popular project management methodologies are Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, PRINCE2, PMBOK, Lean, Six Sigma, and critical path method (CPM). These methods cover projects that range from predictive to iterative. Many project managers use a combination of multiple methodologies to suit their specific project needs.
Agile is a larger framework or philosophy for delivering work in short, customer-focused increments. Scrum is a specific approach within Agile that defines roles, events, artifacts, and time-boxed sprints for organizing iterative work. In short, Agile is the mindset, while Scrum is one way to apply it.
The best project management methodology for your team depends on your project type, goals, industry, team structure, and level of uncertainty. Teams with fast-changing digital or product work often suit Agile, Scrum, or Kanban. Large or highly regulated programs may fit Waterfall, PRINCE2, or PMBOK. Process improvement work may be best suited to Lean or Six Sigma.
Yes, project managers can combine multiple project management methodologies using a hybrid approach. This lets teams match different methods to different types or stages of work, rather than forcing one approach across the project. For example, a team might use Agile for software development within a Waterfall-based program, or combine Scrum and Kanban for operations-heavy work.
