The Great Battle: Waterfall vs. Constant Repetition (Iteration)

The waterfall model is a traditional project management method that relies on a sequential approach. The phases of a project are processed one after the other, starting with planning and implementation. Each stage must be completed before the next can begin. The waterfall model is very planning-intensive and requires an accurate forecast of the project flow.

On the other hand, the iterative method relies on constant repetition of planning and development phases to react faster and more flexibly to changes and challenges. Various agile methodologies, such as Scrum or Kanban, are based on iterations and encourage close collaboration between team members and customers. The focus here is on transparency, communication and flexibility.

Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages and vary in suitability depending on the type and scope of the project. While the waterfall model can be effective on well-defined projects with stable requirements, the iterative method benefits projects with unclear or changing conditions.

The Waterfall Model

Like a waterfall, the waterfall model consists of clearly separated phases that flow down from one stage to the next. The steps are intuitively understandable and easy to use, starting with the planning, in which the fundamental framework conditions of the project are negotiated, followed by the concretization and definition of the project and the creation of a concrete design and its integration into the environment (implementation). Finally, the development is tested and optionally maintained. The waterfall model can be applied quickly and easily in many areas, from e-learning classrooms to software development for navigation systems. The downside is that it’s difficult to swim against the tide as it’s pretty costly to jump back,

The Iterative Models

Iterative models are characterized by their flexibility. As already mentioned, iterative means repetition. The steps are processed in loops, and feedback is constantly obtained and optimized. Typically, the approach is incremental, with small, workable units being built and tested before further processing. A (partially) working prototype is created very early in the process, avoiding many potential mistakes. In contrast to the waterfall model, it is possible to return to a previous phase at any time. Although there are different forms and models based on iteration, they all share this standard basic structure.

Agile project management is the answer to the challenges that the waterfall model brings with it. In contrast, agile development is a highly flexible concept that does not specify rigid structures but leaves room for creativity and interaction. Instead of stringent processes, the focus here is on continuous flow, in which transparency and decentralized structures play an essential role. The result is a highly effective working method focusing on innovation and adaptability.

CONCLUSION

Overall, both the waterfall and iterative project management models have advantages and disadvantages. While the waterfall model scores with its clear structure and ease of use, it is difficult to make changes afterwards. On the other hand, the iterative models offer more flexibility and avoid gross miscalculations but also require excellent communication and teamwork. Iterative models are instrumental in the e-learning context, enabling potential users to participate in the test phase quickly. However, making these models understandable to the masses and communicating their benefits remains a challenge.

Also Read: How To Improve Performance Management In Companies

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Business Management

Running a business involves monitoring and optimizing its performance using various tools and indicators. Therefore, it consists of collecting relevant data to evaluate them to make the necessary decisions. Management, therefore, has the main objectives of preventing risks, anticipating pitfalls, and improving efficiency, both organizationally and financially.

Dashboards Their Definition And Roles

Dashboards are still today little-known, misunderstood tools with a vague concept. Their use has long been limited to preparing a budget, presenting reports related to accounting or finance, or even simply reporting in an Excel file. They lost their primary function: managing.

What are dashboards used for? They are used first and foremost to analyze data to assess progress towards achieving business profitability objectives. They highlight the physical or financial results concerning the goals to be completed and identify the deviations.

Dashboards are also reactivity tools, and they make it possible to guide the measures to be taken to correct the discrepancies identified. They are also information and motivation tools for managers. They are used to transmit the results internally to stimulate the teams to continue the work started to achieve the objectives set.

Designing A Dashboard Main Steps

This is how ultra-powerful analysis technologies well known to management controllers appeared, such as the Essbase multidimensional technology, which, thanks to the expertise of expert integrators, has for many years made it possible to develop dashboards and efficient financial reporting by respecting specific steps that relate to both substance and form:

• Goal Setting

The first step to creating a scorecard is to determine the objective and target of such an exercise thoroughly. The use we want to make of the TB can go well beyond performance evaluation and be part of collaborative and cross-functional projects.

• Choice Of KPIs

KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are inseparable from dashboards. Through these critical indicators, a leader can measure the effectiveness of his actions. There is a multitude of KPIs in all sectors of activity. Each hand must also be combined with at least one driver, i.e., an element used to improve the performance of the movement in terms of quality, time, or cost. It is essential to limit the number of key indicators in the dashboards, choose the right ones, and interpret them correctly.

• I am Setting The Update Frequency

The design of dashboards must also provide for the determination of an update frequency. Whether you opt for a daily, weekly, or annual update, the periodicity chosen must make sense so as not to become counter-productive.

• Form Of Tables

The use of the Excel spreadsheet to design dashboards is a valid option, but it is not the only one at the time of generalization of software in the Cloud. It is also possible to use a reporting tool that employees have already mastered to design their tables. Several SaaS business intelligence solutions are also available to construct and distribute dashboards. In any case, the main thing is to be able to highlight necessary data visually. Beyond the construction of KPIs and dashboards, there are tools dedicated to managing business performance, such as EPM software.

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Still, depending on the type or sector in which it operates, it should focus its efforts on recording and analyzing the key variables for good company management. Let’s start from the basis that there is no single type of agricultural company: there are those that only grow a single variety of fruit/vegetables on owned/leased farms and sell the product to processors, to those that grow on owned/leased farms at the same time that they buy the product from third parties, handle/package it in their facilities and distribute it to the customer (supermarkets, food stores.). Each link in the value chain implies management challenges of increasing complexity as more steps of the process are covered. Therefore, we will address the fundamental parameters to control each chain link.

Countryside the agricultural value chain begins in the field. Whether through the cultivation of own or leased farms, with fixed varieties each season or crops in rotation, land preparation, fertilization, sowing, irrigation, phytosanitary control, or quality control. Are necessary until the moment of harvesting. Some key indicators here are as follows:

• Crop yield is measured as product units concerning resources, for example, Kg per hectare, Kg per tree, etc. They are specific to each cultivated species or variety and allow us to know if our crop is reasonably productive concerning the established reference.
• Production cost, which can be broken down based on available information, must be associated with the production unit (euros/Kg, for example). It can range from the total cost (total euros invested in the crop) to broken down items (irrigation, phytosanitary products, harvesting.).
• Field waste is the amount of product that, once harvested, is not useful for its continuity in the primary chain for quality reasons and must be diverted to the secondary chain. In an orange tree crop, discarded oranges are usually destined for the juice or pulp sector since they would not be acceptable in the fruit sector for wholesale (because of their appearance and weight.). It is generally measured in % of unit weight. It is a very important indicator since the cost of producing a culled piece is the same as that of a normal amount. Still, the sale price of the culled selection is just a fraction of that of the normal work, so it should be minimized in everything possible.

Handling and packaging once the basic fruit or vegetable has been collected (or purchased), the next usual phase is handling, which includes storage, grading, weighing, washing, selection, packaging and dispatch. You can even contemplate methods such as cutting, cleaning and combining with other varieties to produce products with greater added value (fourth range). This part of the value chain is closer to industrial activity, so many of the usual industrial indicators can be applied. Some relevant ones are the following:

• Handling cost, which can be broken down based on the available information, must be associated with the production unit (euros/Kg, for example). It can range from the total cost (total euros invested in the handling) to broken down by items based on the successive phases.
• Warehouse waste is similar to field waste in nature and is measured similarly. It is common for units to be discarded during the handling phase that has not been dumped in the gathering phase. It is important to minimize this ratio, which must be done in the harvesting step through exhaustive control of the handling company.
• Surpluses, which is the amount of final product included in the sales container but for which there is no charge, is an important magnitude when packaging units make the sale. A 500g tray of tomatoes does not carry exactly 500g since the packaging is in whole pieces, and they will rarely add exactly that amount. Given that in no case can it take less than 500g, it will almost always have a few grams more, which means that in a production of thousands of units, this means several more kilograms of product included but not charged. It is measured as a percentage and must be controlled to detect the varieties or types of packaging that involve the most excess weight, in case it is possible to optimize or eliminate combinations of the product portfolio.

From here, the distribution of the final product can follow different routes, although it is usually derived from large distribution centers until it reaches the final consumer. We will not address this phase in this article. More indicators can be incorporated into an agricultural company’s control scorecard, which will depend on its scope in the chain and subsector. In general terms, it is recommended that the company build a performance map throughout the chain to supply the demand and properly plan supplies. 

Also Read: Business Management Programs For Machine Maintenance

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In practice, a PMO is a knowledge centre that offers support services to projects and their teams. Some of the responsibilities or functions it performs are developing project management methodologies to establish a common language for managing those projects within the realization and training and training for project leaders and their teams. It also defines processes, tools and indicators.

One Of The Main Functions Of PMOs Is To Centralize Everything

A PMO usually has its department within an organization and what that department does is one among other things.

• It seeks to standardize the ways of working when it comes to projects.
• It seeks to ensure that best practices are implemented within the organization.
• It is a place where all projects are channelled and distributed accordingly.
• Make sure you are aligned with the strategic initiatives of the organization.

Project Management Office

He is in charge of keeping all the information on the project portfolio and preparing reports to be delivered to senior management to make decisions. Apart from all the functions in practice, we have seen that those project management offices that manage to understand the needs of senior management are working to be successful. The organization or department briefs the top executive, giving him the information he needs to make sure that things are on the right track and even the status of what is happening with all those major initiatives.

Who Should Work In The PMO

Some PMO leader is needed. It could be a manager or someone at a higher level, at the director level, who is part of the executive team because the PMO leader that office has to take a look at the strategy and guide the executive team on whether those strategies can be executed or not based on time, scope, budget and even resources. Who else do you need? You’re going to need project managers, project leaders.

Also Read: Why Is It Key To Integrate E-commerce And ERP In SMEs

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Introduction to SASE

SASE is a security solution that is designed to meet the needs of modern enterprises. In the past, companies’ computers, data, and employees were largely located on-prem and connected to the corporate LAN.

This is no longer the case. The modern enterprise has infrastructure all over the place and needs a way to ensure that it is secured at the same level as traditional on-prem infrastructure. SASE is the solution.
SASE is a cloud-based solution that combines the network optimization capabilities of SD-WAN with an integrated security stack. SASE points of presence (PoPs) are deployed in a web and connected with high-performance, secure communications links.

This provides a number of different entry and exit points to the corporate WAN. Traffic enters the corporate WAN through the nearest SASE PoP and undergoes security inspection and policy enforcement by the built-in security stack. If approved, the traffic is optimally routed to the SASE PoP nearest to its destination, and, from there, on to its target.

This approach provides the best of both network performance and security. Without SASE, organizations need to either sacrifice performance (by backhauling traffic to enterprise networks for security inspection) or security (by routing traffic directly to its destination without security inspection). SASE provides both optimal traffic routing and security.

Also Read: Cybersecurity In The Times Of Edge Computing

Why Businesses Want (and Need) SASE

SASE is a cool solution; however, this is certainly not enough to account for its rapid growth in popularity. Two years ago, no one had even heard of SASE (because that’s when Gartner made up the term). Now, almost every network security vendor has its own “SASE” solution.

The reason for this is that SASE is not only a cool solution but also one that meets the evolving needs of modern business. Examples of these considerations include:

• Secure Remote Access: Pre-2020, secure remote access was a convenience, but the COVID-19 pandemic made it a necessity. SASE provides a secure, scalable remote access solution that uses zero-trust network access (ZTNA) – also known as a software-defined perimeter (SDP) – to manage access to corporate assets based on zero-trust principles.
• Cloud Support: Cloud adoption is growing rapidly, and almost all companies have a cloud deployment. Traditional, perimeter-based solutions don’t work well for cloud-based infrastructure. SASE solutions, on the other hand, are deployed in the cloud, making it possible for them to protect an organization’s cloud-based assets without compromising performance.
• Security Complexity: The complexity of securing an organization against cyber threats is growing steadily as companies adopt new technologies and cyber threats become more common and sophisticated. However, cybersecurity teams are not growing at the same pace and are having trouble keeping up. SASE unifies an organization’s security infrastructure into a single platform, making it much easier to manage, monitor, and use.
• Cyber Risk: Cybersecurity has become a top-of-mind concern for many businesses as data breaches and other cyber threats become more common. SASE makes it possible for an organization to consistently protect and enforce zero trust security policies across its entire infrastructure, reducing its cyber risk.
• Internet of Things (IoT): Businesses are increasingly deploying IoT devices for business purposes, but these devices are notoriously insecure and difficult to protect with traditional cybersecurity solutions. SASE provides the ability to monitor and protect all of an organization’s devices, regardless of location.
• Regulatory Compliance: Data protection regulations are growing more numerous, and they are increasingly stringent about how companies should manage the customer data in their possession. SASE solutions provide organizations with greater visibility into and control over their data flows, making it easier to ensure that data is appropriately protected and that usage complies with applicable regulations.

These are some of the most important considerations for modern business. SASE’s growing popularity comes from the fact that it checks the box for many organizations’ top security concerns.

Selecting the Right SASE Solution

SASE solutions are becoming more common, and more organizations are evaluating them as part of their evolving security strategies. However, when it comes to SASE, many of the solutions labeled as “SASE” aren’t SASE and don’t provide the full benefits of SASE.

A true SASE solution offers a fully integrated security stack and SD-WAN solution in a virtualized appliance. “SASE” solutions that tack on security to SD-WAN or use service chaining lack the same benefits as a true SASE solution. The full integration of networking and security functionality in SASE is essential to achieving its full performance benefits and security management. Choosing the wrong product leaves a company with a solution that adds complexity and doesn’t meet its needs.

Also Read: Minimize Android Cyber Risks with this Quick Guide

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