"It's not just about having a process for process sake, but after spending the time to choose the right process, you need to then internalize it. Chuck out things that don't work in the process and add things from other processes that work well for the team dynamics," he said.

Granell draws on a redevelopment project for independent software vendor QSR as an example of this type of flexibility and communication in action.

"The team [working for QSR] chose the Rational Unified Process but went on to modify it and even ended up calling it QIP (the QSR Iterative Process). Everyone (developers, testers, BA's, and tech writers) was encouraged to give feedback as to what was and wasn't working," he said.

"QSR fostered good relationships between all these different groups," he said, adding he doubted the same kind of success would have been achieved had there been a 'them versus us' mentality, especially between the developers and the testers.

Granell also suggests that it is important to "Front end" a large project.