Why Agile is Better than Waterfall (Based on Standish Group Chaos Report 2020)

The 2020 Standish Group Chaos Study shows Agile Projects are 3X more likely to succeed than Waterfall projects, and Waterfall is 2X more likely to fail.

When it comes to technology projects, Agile projects succeed where traditional projects fail. It’s really that simple. In fact, the most recent Standish Group Chaos Study from 2020 shows that Agile Projects are 3X more likely to succeed than Waterfall projects. And Waterfall projects are 2X more likely to fail.

To be clear, the failure and success metrics shared in this article are based on software projects only. I don’t know about success and failure rates for other types of projects.

Oddly not everyone agrees even when talking about technology or software projects. In particular the project management community decried the value of agile ways of working. Only recently have they embraced their own version of agility and even now they still like to claim that traditional approaches have their place in technology projects. Unwilling to let go, they promote the alchemy of hybrid agile, whatever that is.

[See this related article: Project Managers Fail to Help Software Projects Succeed]