Towards a hybrid project management framework: A systematic literature review on traditional, agile and hybrid techniques

Abstract

It is the state of the practice in these turbulent times to combine different approaches and project management methods into hybrid and adaptive methods according to the specific needs of the project and the project team. The objective of the present work is to investigate this practice conducting a systematic literature review on project management methods, hybrid agile methods, method tailoring and innovative processes to tailor methodologies. We applied a systematic analysis of the existent research published during period 2000 – 2020 following similar approaches of several scholars. 1.121 articles published from 2000 until 2020 were collected after exhaustive literature search. However, 98 of them were selected for further investigation according to the criteria selection. Results provide key insights and background on agile project management frameworks as well as challenges and best practices implementing an inhouse hybrid agile project management framework. We anticipate the present work to constitute a useful source of information to PM scientists and practitioners. Results identify new dimensions emerging of the synthesis of project management aspects and provide key insights on traditional and agile project management frameworks as well as challenges and best practices implementing an inhouse tailored hybrid agile project management framework. This work contributes to the body of knowledge about the organization mainly of agile and hybrid approaches. We analyzed the found descriptions thoroughly regarding their characteristics and their organization.