Amechi Nwachukwu Aronu
a.aronu6685@miva.edu.ng
1a
Agile project management is an iterative approach to delivering a project, which focuses on
continuous releases that incorporate customer feedback. The ability to adjust during each
iteration promotes velocity and adaptability.
Waterfall project management is a linear, sequential project management methodology also
known as the traditional or predictive lifecycle, its approach entails a clearly defined
sequence of execution with project phases that do not advance until a phase receives final
approval. Once a phase is completed, it can be difficult and costly to revisit a previous stage.
The two agile characteristics demonstrated by Flutterwave are:
Iterative Development and Rapid Delivery: Flutterwave frequently releases and iterates on
features (e.g., new payment methods, APIs, cross-border solutions, and compliance
adaptations). This aligns with Agile’s emphasis on delivering working software in short
cycles (sprints), gathering feedback quickly from merchants and users, and continuously
improving the product rather than waiting for a “big bang” launch.
Customer Collaboration and Adaptability: The Company’s ability and resilience shows
responsiveness to changing market needs, regulatory environments, and customer
requirements across multiple countries. This reflects Agile values such as welcoming
changing requirements, close collaboration with stakeholders (e.g., merchants, regulators),
and prioritizing customer value through data-driven insights and rapid adaptation.
The two Waterfall characteristics demonstrated by FirstBank are:
Sequential Phases with Comprehensive Upfront Planning: Large banking projects (core
banking upgrades, compliance initiatives, infrastructure projects) follow linear, stage-gated
processes: detailed requirements gathering, design, implementation, testing, and deployment.
Each phase must be completed and approved before moving to the next, with heavy emphasis
on documentation and predictability. First bank’s core banking engine, Finacle, was
implemented between 2002 and 2005, replacing a legacy mainframe estate. That migration
was one of the largest in Africa and required multiple years of planning, documentation, and
changeover. These traits persist today. The bank modernizes incrementally using structured
gate-based processes.
Emphasis on Documentation, Compliance, and security:
Waterfall’s structured approach
suits highly regulated environments. FirstBank most importantly relies on extensive
documentation, formal approvals, fixed scopes, and thorough testing at the end of phases to
ensure auditability, security, and adherence to banking regulations—priorities that favour
thorough planning over flexibility. First banks migration was one of the largest in Africa and
required multiple years of planning, documentation, and changeover. These traits persist
today.
1b
For flutter wave: Flutterwave been a new generation and tech driven financial institution,
represents a class of companies that were born in the Tech and cloud era. It was founded not
to repeat trends but to change history, enhance how transactions are done in the financial
market and enhance legacy core systems for modern use, build payment infrastructure as a
software native environment where services are deployed iteratively, monitored constantly,
and scaled horizontally on demand. Flutterwave accelerated rapidly because its product
architecture and engineering culture allowed the organization to adapt to regulations, change
market integrations, mitigate risk and release new features within short cycles.
Regulatory Requirements While subject to payment service regulations, licensing, and
compliance (e.g., PCI-DSS, AML), fintechs like Flutterwave operate with more flexibility
than traditional banks. Regulators often treat them as innovators, allowing faster iteration.
Agile enables them to incorporate regulatory feedback quickly through short sprints and
minimum viable products (MVPs), rather than locking in rigid long-term plans.
Risk Tolerance Flutterwave exhibits higher risk tolerance, typical of startups backed by
venture capital. They accept technical and market risks in exchange for speed-to-market and
competitive advantage. Agile’s iterative nature allows them to fail fast, learn quickly, and
pivot — for example, adjusting features based on real user data or emerging competitive
threats. This tolerance supports embracing change rather than fearing it.
These factors created an environment where Agile is a strategic fit — enabling rapid
innovation while managing the uncertainties of a fast-evolving fintech landscape.
FirstBank been an old generation bank was founded when technology was little or unknown
relied heavily on traditional plan driven (Waterfall) methodologies for its core systems
because of the advantages this method offers the banking industry. FirstBank, by contrast,
was not built in a cloud era. The institution began in 1894 when banking meant physical
branches, manual ledger books and monthly reconciliations. The bank survived wars,
currency regime changes and national reorganisations. Stability and control became
embedded in its organizational structure. These traits influence technology behavior today.
When FirstBank modernises, it does so employing an hybrid approach, with the Waterfall
techniques applied at the core, with sequential design stages, extended UAT periods, and
vendor-supervised deployments. Changes may take years, but risks are contained and
documented thoroughly. In a country where payment disruption can destabilise commerce,
this caution is not without rationale and consequences.
Regulatory Requirements Banks face intense regulatory scrutiny from bodies like the Central
Bank of Nigeria (CBN), NDIC, and international standards. Projects involving customer data,
financial transactions, or system changes demand extensive documentation, auditability, and
formal approvals. Waterfall’s linear phases (detailed requirements, design, testing,
deployment) and heavy governance structures provide the necessary traceability and
compliance evidence that regulators expect. Changes mid-project are heavily controlled to
avoid compliance breaches.
Risk Tolerance Traditional banks like FirstBank have very low risk tolerance, especially
regarding operational, financial, reputational, and regulatory risks. A system outage, data
breach, or compliance failure can have severe consequences (fines, loss of license, customer
erosion). Waterfall’s emphasis on comprehensive upfront planning, sequential verification,
and minimal changes after requirements freeze reduces the likelihood of costly surprises in
production.
These three factors reinforce a strong preference for Waterfall, prioritising stability,
accountability, and risk minimization over speed.
2a
Flutterwave, a leading global fintech institution offers payment platform in multiple countries
across the globe and operates in a fast-moving, highly regulated environment. Agile project
delivery with its emphasis on iterative development, frequent releases, customer feedback,
and adaptability is critical for them to innovate quickly while maintaining security,
compliance, and reliability. Software architecture, DevOps practices, and team structure play
interconnected, foundational roles in making this possible.
Software architecture defines the system's structure, components, and interactions. At
Flutterwave, it enables Agile by supporting independent development and evolution of
features like Microservices and modular design, API-first and cloud-native approach and
Support for quality attributes
Teams can work in short iterations (sprints), deliver incremental value, restructure safely, and
respond to changing requirements (e.g., new regulations or market needs) with minimal
disruption. Without modularity, Agile would devolve into slow, risky releases.
DevOps bridges development and operations, turning Agile's "working software" principle
into reality through collaboration and automating the system.
DevOps ensures continuous delivery, so completed sprint work can reach production (or
staging) quickly and safely. This shortens feedback loops, reduces risk, and supports high
deployment frequency—key Agile metrics.
Flutterwave’s engineering initiatives, including cloud-native adoption and mobility programs.
Team structure organizes people to maximize flow and ownership.
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Small, autonomous teams: Inspired by models like Amazon’s “2-pizza teams,”
Flutterwave organizes engineering into small, cross-functional units that own specific
domains or products.

Cross-functional composition: Developers (backend/frontend), DevOps engineers,
QA, product owners, and domain experts work together in the same team.

Platform and enabling teams: Support stream-aligned teams with shared tools,
services, and standards, reducing duplication and cognitive load.

Talent development focus: Programs like the Capgemini engineering mobility
initiative help scale skills, promote knowledge sharing, and accelerate agile maturity
across regions.
Well motivated teams can plan, build, test, and deliver end-to-end within sprints. This
minimizes handoffs, fosters collaboration and aligns technical work directly with business
outcomes.
How These Elements Work Together at Flutterwave
Architecture provides technical independence while DevOps provides delivery automation
and Team structure provides organizational agility.
2b
The strengths of waterfall approach as applied by first bank are:
Structured Planning and Comprehensive Requirement : Waterfall requires detailed upfront
requirements gathering and design. For FirstBank’s CBS transformation, this supports
thorough coverage of complex banking functions (deposits, loans, payments, GL,
compliance, reporting) and integration with legacy systems. It aids regulatory alignment with
CBN guidelines.
Clear Milestones, Governance, and Accountability: Phase gates (requirements → design →
build → test → deploy) provide strong program management, budgeting control, and
visibility for executives, auditors, and vendors. This is valuable for large-scale projects
involving partners like Finacle implementers.
The Limitations of waterfall approach as applied by first bank are:
Inflexibility to Evolving Requirements: Once phases are locked, changes (e.g., new digital
features, regulatory updates, or customer demands for faster on boarding) are costly and
disruptive. FirstBank’s ongoing digitization—dramatically reducing account opening times,
launching mobile solutions, and pursuing cloud-based platforms—requires greater
adaptability than pure Waterfall provides.
Late Discovery of Issues: Integration, performance, and data quality problems often surface
only in late testing or go-live phases. In CBS projects, this can lead to expensive delays,
extended parallel runs, or post-launch issues—risky for customer trust and operations.
3a
Adopt a two-tiered hybrid framework:
1. Waterfall at the Outer Layer
o Used for overall program governance, high-level planning, compliance, and
major milestones.
2. Agile at the Project Inner Layer
o Used for execution within defined phases or work streams, enabling iterative
development and rapid value delivery.
Key Structure:




Program Initiation & Planning (Waterfall): Define vision, high-level requirements,
business case, budget, regulatory roadmap, risk management framework, and highlevel architecture.
Phased Execution with Agile Delivery: Break the transformation into major phases
(e.g., Foundation, Migration Waves, Digital Channels, Optimization). Within each
phase, use Agile sprints for development, testing, and deployment.
Governance Gates: Maintain Waterfall-style phase reviews, audits, and go/no-go
decisions between major phases.
Implementation Waves: Use phased migration (e.g., pilot branch → regional rollout
→ full bank) with parallel running of legacy and new systems.
3b
Neither model is universally superior. Each optimises a different outcome. In a country with
expanding transaction volume and rising digital adoption, Agile enables speed, scaling, and
customer experience improvement. Waterfall ensures trust, compliance and fail-safe
processing.
The future lies somewhere between both poles. Nigerian finance is at a transition point where
banks must learn to move faster without losing safety and fintechs must adopt higher
resilience as they scale toward national systemic relevance. Methodology is now a
competitive determinant. Those who adapt will lead. Those who do not risk becoming
irrelevant.