Understanding how delivery models integrate within the project lifecycle guides selecting the most suitable delivery method. Each model—Waterfall, Agile, and Hybrid—offers distinct processes that align differently with the Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing phases of a project's lifecycle.

Project Phases in Waterfall Delivery Model

The Waterfall model is recognised for its systematic, sequential approach to project delivery, based on detailed planning and step-by-step progression:

• Initiation: Secures formal approval to start the project or a new phase, identifies key stakeholders, defines project objectives, and establishes governance foundations.
• Planning: Involves designing the project's roadmap and outlining how objectives will be achieved. It also includes scheduling, budgeting, resource allocation, risk identification, establishing a quality management plan, and collecting and analysing requirements to define the project's scope.
• Execution: Implements the plans by coordinating people, resources, and processes. This begins with system design—planning the project's structure, components, and interfaces. The designs are transformed into a product through development, followed by testing to ensure the product meets specifications and that defects are identified and fixed.
• Monitoring and Controlling: This function tracks progress concurrently with execution, ensuring adherence to objectives, timelines, and quality benchmarks. Continuous evaluation involves reviewing and adjusting deliverables to address any deviations from the plan.
• Closing: This phase features deployment, preparing the project for launch into the operational setting. It includes user training, final tests, and warranty support for incidents post-implementation. The phase concludes with a post-project review to capture and analyse lessons learned for future improvement.

Project Phases in Scrum Delivery Model

The Scrum framework organises the development process into sprints, typically lasting two to four weeks. Each sprint ends with a review session involving stakeholders and team members to discuss progress and plan the next steps. This iterative approach encourages team collaboration and enhances adaptability across the project lifecycle:

• Initiation: Establishes the product vision, creates the product backlog, sets project goals, understands stakeholder needs, and assembles the Scrum Team.
• Planning: This includes Sprint Planning meetings and Backlog Refinement sessions, where tasks are selected from the product backlog to maintain flexibility and alignment with evolving project objectives and stakeholder feedback.
• Execution: Revolves around sprints and daily stand-ups, focusing on task completion and team cohesion through regular communication. 
• Monitoring and controlling: This includes Sprint Review meetings and Sprint Retrospectives, which enhance stakeholder engagement and provide opportunities for the team to assess and refine the sprint process.
• Note on the Closing phase: Scrum lacks a distinct Closing phase. It employs a continuous delivery model, where each sprint can produce a deployable product version, thus removing the need for a separate Closing phase. The cycle of planning, execution, evaluation, and adjustment continues indefinitely.

Project Phases in SAFe Delivery Model

The Scaled Agile Framework expands agile principles across an enterprise, synchronising multiple agile projects to align with broader organisational goals. It structures development into Program Increments lasting eight to twelve weeks, including planning and review sessions to align with strategic objectives. SAFe promotes scalable agility, cross-functional collaboration, and strategic adaptability across the project lifecycle:

• Initiation: Defines the Portfolio Vision and establishes Lean Portfolio Management practices, aligning strategic themes with investment funding. It includes forming the Agile Release Train (ART) to deliver value at scale.
• Planning: Features PI Planning events, where ART teams collaborate to set objectives for the upcoming Program Increment.
• Execution: This focus is on iterations within the Program Increment, incorporating the release-on-demand principle for delivering value based on business needs and organisational readiness.
• Monitoring and controlling: Includes the System Demo and Inspect and Adapt workshops at the end of each PI. These activities review progress, gather stakeholder feedback, and identify areas for process improvement.
• Note on the Closing phase: SAFe has no distinct Closing phase. Instead, it focuses on continuous delivery and constant improvement within a value stream rather than discrete project endpoints.

Project Phases in Hybrid Delivery Model

The hybrid model combines the structured approach of the waterfall model with the flexibility of agile practices, which is suitable for projects requiring precise initial requirements and the ability to adapt to changing needs. Below is how Hybrid practices integrate with the standard project lifecycle phases:

• Initiation: Conducts feasibility studies, aligns with business objectives, establishes a comprehensive project vision, and assembles teams with roles from both Agile and Waterfall methodologies, including Project Managers, Scrum Masters, and Development Teams.
• Planning: This feature features detailed plans similar to the Waterfall model, defining project scope, timeline, and key deliverables while creating a product backlog with high-level requirements and detailed user stories for initial sprints.
• Execution: This approach merges the structured Waterfall approach for major deliverables with Agile's iterative sprint cycles for smaller tasks. Daily stand-ups and continuous communication maintain team cohesion and support product component development, testing, and iteration. 
• Monitoring and controlling: This includes regular sprint reviews and retrospectives to assess progress and facilitate plan adjustments. Traditional techniques are used to track milestones and deliverables against the plan.
• Closing: This phase concludes the project with the delivery of the final product to the customer and reviews project outcomes against initial objectives. Post-implementation reviews incorporate lessons from both models to inform future projects, with maintenance and ongoing support transitioning into an Agile phase for iterative updates and refinements.

Table 8 summarises how each delivery model manages the project phases, allowing for easy comparison of their respective approaches.