This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter's approach.

There are a range of different methodologies which are often applied to project management, with the three most commonly considered being PMBOK, PRINCE2 and Agile. If you're trying to weigh up what are the pros and cons of PMBOK versus PRINCE2 versus something like Agile, you may find it useful to consider them in context with the project that you're undertaking, as well as comparing one to the other.

Agile software development is designed to thrive within even the most dynamic business and technical environments. In fact, according to an article on the Web site of Martin Fowler, a well-known Agile industry leader, the name 'Agile' was chosen because its founders viewed 'adaptiveness and response to change' as the most essential concept of the methodology.

Many organisations consider Agile development as a nice-to-have way of improving their efficiency and driving change. For document management provider Aconex, however, the adoption of Agile was a lifeline after its operations faced almost paralysing pressures from an increasingly complex product, ever more-demanding customers and sales staff, and heady growth that has propelled the Melbourne startup into 35 countries.

A recent five-month effort to complete a business intelligence (BI) project for an internal division marked a major turning point for life reinsurer, RGA Australia, as its developers charged forward with an Agile-driven methodology that replaced traditional bottom-up development processes with an iterative effort to see how much could be done within a five-month timeframe.

Project Management Methodologies are a series of different processes designed to assist project managers and those overseeing or involved with projects

CIOs and project managers talk about Agile in the trenches - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Imagine a CRM consulting project with inadequately specified requirements, no clear internal project manager, and ill-defined success criteria. Your consultant bids it on a time and materials (T&M) basis. You're in a rush, no time for a detailed RFP - you know the consultant can do the job, but you need a budgetary number to get approval. We've all been through this drill: somebody brilliant suggests that this has to be fixed price, it'll be easier to get project approval and manage to conclusion that way. You know, just like it would be when buying servers.

Agile methodologies seemed like a good idea to this software development team. But when the company doesn't sincerely accept the change in work style, the result is just a buzzword for "project hell"