Agile Development: Project-Based

[Tommaso2]

Hi all,

I have the following doubts:

- I studied months ago that Agile 2.0 (I read it will be deprecated) is split into "Product-Based" and "Project-Based": this division is still valid? If I got well, in the first case Agile is used to manage developments related to implementation stand alone e.g. a new CR that is not connected to a project (so there's no Gantt, tasks...);

also, I got that in the second scenario you could create a Agile phase from the Gantt, in addition to waterfall tasks -> is my comprehension correct?

- Now I found that Agile 2.0 is split into "Standalone project development" (1) and "Project Based" (2) (so the previous classification is deprecated?): 

   1. I understood that it corresponds to the Hybrid type of project, meaning that in the Gantt you can use tasks  (e.g. phases such as planning, and analysis are taken up as waterfall tasks) but you can create an Agile phase to manage the developments (and then the execution is done as agile phase). I read in the product documentation that "Project managers can choose pure agile", how it works in this scenario? 

   2. I read "Product owners select the prioritized stories and assign them to one or more projects, thus creating the project backlog. Product owners can create one or more projects and capture additional details such as required resources, cost, risk, strategic alignment. .." : but if you create a project from stories, what changed against option 1? If a project is created, then I imagine also tasks are created in a Gantt and so on, then what is different? 

- There's a use case when Agile is used regardless of projects?

Project-based development use case in Agile Development • Australia Strategic Portfolio Management •...

Many thanks

[Vikram Reddy · Accepted solution]

Hello @Tommaso2,

This mix-up is common, honestly, because ServiceNow keeps relabeling the same two use case pages under Agile Development (Standalone/Product-Based versus Project-Based), even though the platform mechanics haven't really changed release to release. Worth knowing too: Agile Development 2.0 hits End of Sale in April 2026 and End of Renewal for the Agile Teams SKU in September 2026, with Collaborative Work Management taking over as the replacement, so I wouldn't sink too much time memorizing this split.

What actually drives the behavior is one field on the project record, not a separate product mode. When you're untangling this on a real project, check:

• The project's methodology field only has three values, Waterfall, Agile, or Hybrid, there's no separate "pure agile" type, that phrase just means methodology is set to Agile so the whole project runs as sprints instead of phases.
• For Hybrid projects, you add an Agile phase from the Gantt, but stories and epics aren't linked to it automatically, you attach them via the related list on that phase.
• A product backlog can exist with zero projects attached to it, that's the standalone case, useful for ongoing work like Service Catalog enhancements that has no start or end date.
• When a product owner "creates a project from stories," that's just a project record spun up with its backlog pointed at stories already groomed, still governed by the same methodology field, not a different engine underneath.

Thank you,
Vikram Karety
Octigo Solutions INC