Top 3 Software Development Methodologies: Pros & Cons

In today’s highly digitized ecosystem, technology is evolving at a fast pace. And it is

pushing software organizations to compete and work in a highly competitive

environment. Software development methodologies are one of the vital factors

that form the backbone of the software industry, that efficiently binds employees,

processes, technology, and tools. IDC research reveals that the global information

technology industry is headed at full pace to reach $5.2 trillion by the end of this

year, which is also employing millions of people who build, design, grow and sell

computer software and services.

There are numerous software development methodologies suited to building

different types of software and applications. Picking up the correct one is crucial

for delivering the project with the best results and within the specified timeframe.

Thus, getting acquainted with popular software development methodologies,

along with their pros and cons is essential before embarking upon the software

development journey.

Types of Software

Development Methodologies

This article offers the top software development methodologies comparison that

will help you make a grounded decision on what methodology fits your business

and functional requirements.

1. Waterfall Model

Though less common these days, when your end product’s requirements are fixed, yet time and money are variable, choose the waterfall method. –Patrick Rockwell

Introduced by Dr. Winston W. Royce in a paper published in 1970, the Waterfall

Methodology is a sequential, linear software development process of project

management.

The Waterfall Approach focuses on the logical progression of all the steps involved

in the software development life cycle (SDLC). The structure of phases it follows is

simple—each stage cascades down to the next level of development. In short, it is

not one big Niagara Falls; rather it is a series of cascading waterfalls in which the

pools (phases of development) do not overlap.

Stages Involved in the Waterfall

Methodology

A Waterfall Model passes through several individual phases, which amalgamate to

result in the desired product. The stages are explained briefly with an example to

understand the core of the Waterfall model better.

Assume that a renowned bank is planning to build a new banking application in the

90s. So the ideal approach to develop the software is:

Requirements: In this phase, the

client’s detailed requirements are

gathered, followed by defining the

expectations and goals of the project

and analyzing the risks. As the team

goes through the list, some more

questions are revealed by the

dedicated project team, which may

not be mentioned in the

requirements document. For

instance:

o How many countries will use this

banking application?

o Is there a need to support

multiple languages?

o What is the number of users

expected to use this

application?

Design: Identifying the goals of the

project is followed by the designing

phase of the product, which involves

drawing the blueprint for coders to

meet the desired requirements. In

this case, the architect of the project

works to design the banking

application’s software architecture.

For instance, it is decided that the

application is required to have

redundant backup and failover

capabilities so that the system is

accessible all the time. Thus, the

architect designs documents and

creates an architecture diagram for

the same.

Construction: This phase is also

known as development, coding, or

implementation. In this stage, the

development team works on writing

the software for the project. They

follow the design documents to

ensure their solution follows the

design as finalized by the architect.

Being a banking application, the

highest priority is given to the security

of the application. Thus, developers

implement various security checks

and audit logging features in the app.

Testing and Debugging: In this phase

of the process, the software

undergoes the stress-test and is

combed over for errors to ensure that

the final product meets the

customer’s requirements. If there is

any defect in the application,

developers fix the same, and the

testing team tests the fixes to make

sure the error is fixed. They also

perform regression testing of the app

to see if any new defects were

introduced.

Deployment: After testing and

debugging are complete, the code is

deployed to a production

environment as per the agreed-upon

requirements. Another set of testing

and verification often follows after

implementation. In the case of a

banking application, the team builds

and installs the application on the

servers. Some of the high-level

activities involve installing the OS on

the servers, installing security

patches, hardening the servers,

installing web servers and application

servers, installing the database, etc.

In this phase, the team also ensures

that the application runs smoothly on

the servers without downtime.

Pros and Cons of the Waterfall

Methodology

A majority of the organizations, these days, use an assortment of software

methodologies. A survey conducted on manufacturing companies points out that

57% of its respondents use a combination of methodologies, while 25.5% of

companies rely entirely on the Waterfall methodology.

2. Agile Software Development

Methodology

If you adopt only one #agile practice, let it be retrospectives. Everything else will follow. –Woody Zuill

On one bright sunny day, a few people with varied software development

methodologies backgrounds sat on a round table to brainstorm a possible

alternative solution to software development. The aim was to achieve

faster software development time with less documentation. The result of the

meeting is what we call today the Agile Software Development process, which has

grown to become one of the most popular software development methodologies.

The main aim of this approach is to – “learn quickly and often enough that you

don’t simply plow on and exacerbate any issues. Progress iteratively with a

retrospective after each cycle, and you will improve.”

An Agile Development Process is an innovative approach used for articulating a

well-organized project management procedure to minimize the perils by building

software in short boxes, called iterations, which exist from one week to one month.

What is Agile Methodology in Software

Development: Stages Involved

The Agile Methodology Process also goes through its own life cycle. There are 6

phases in this approach, which are explained, followed by an example of a mobile

app development project named Coach.

Concept: In this step of the agile

development process, the team

envisions and prioritizes projects

according to their importance. Some

teams may work on more than one

project simultaneously, depending on

the organization’s departments.

Inception: Once the project has been

identified, team members work with

stakeholders to determine and

discuss requirements. Here, with the

help of flow diagrams, it is easy to

understand how the new feature will

function and fit into the existing

system.

Iteration/Construction: Once the

requirements have been defined for

the initial sprint based on the

stakeholders’ feedback, the real work

starts—the project team begins to

work on development. UX designers

and developers start work on

their user design and the first

iteration of the project.

Release: At this stage, you are very

close to release the product into the

real world. Quality testing and

training, both internal and external

and documentation and reporting,

are put into production.

Production: This stage involves

ongoing support for the software

release. The Agile method helps keep

track of your project and make sure it

is continuously optimized and ready

to bounce back from any sudden

changes or uncertainties.

Retirement: At this stage, you

remove the system release from

production. In short, it is the end of

the life of these activities.

Coach and its Successful Agile Journey

with Net Solutions

IsaiX approached Net Solutions to redo their flagship web-based product, Coach

Technology®, that helps managers with training, targeting, planning, tracking,

evaluating, and encouraging employee performance.

We followed the Agile Development Process for this project with Team Foundation

Server (TFS) that managed our sprint planning, tracking, and team velocity. Using a

system like Coach5 that has three sites under its umbrella, we devised a custom

automated deployment process consisting of all our environments: development,

staging, QC-testing, and operations. For example, pulling the latest from the

repository as per the applied code-label and building the solutions after that. The

deployment component was built as a group of batch files from batch

programming.

Pros and Cons of the Agile Methodology

3. DevOps Software Development

Methodology

DevOps is not a goal, but a never-ending process of continual improvement. –Jez Humble

DevOps is the offspring of the Agile Software Development process, which came

into existence to match the increased software velocity. Over the past few years,

advancements in the agile culture have paved the way for the need for more

holistic software development approaches to the end-to-end software delivery

lifecycle. This approach acts as an ideal bridge between the development and

operational phases of a company.

When the teams used to work separately:

Dev was often oblivious of QA and

Ops roadblocks that prevent the

program from working as anticipated.

QA and Ops were typically working

across many features and had a little

context of the business purpose and

value of the software.

Each group working in this ecosystem would have opposing goals that could open

doors of inefficiency and finger-pointing when something went wrong. To address

these challenges, DevOps took birth intending to establish collaborative cross-

functional teams.

Stages Involved in the DevOps

Methodology

Continuous Development (Plan,

Code, and Build): In this phase, all

software deliverables are divided into

multiple sprints of short and lean

development cycles. These are then

passed on to the Ops in a very short

duration of time.

Continuous Testing (Test): Here, the

built application is tested by QA team

time and again to look for the bugs.

This constant monitoring helps find

the shortcomings of a code right

when they are built.

Continuous Integration (Release): In

this stage, the existing code gets

integrated with the code supporting

new functionality.

Continuous Deployment (Deploy and

Operate): In this stage, the code is

handed over to the production

ecosystem, which makes sure that

the code gets deployed correctly on

all the servers.

Continuous Monitoring (monitor and

provide feedback): Being a very

important stage in the DevOps

software development process, it is

aimed at achieving a high quality of

the software because of incessant

monitoring of its performance.

Software Development

Methodologies – Final

Thoughts

In a digital landscape that demands continuous innovation and customer-centric

approach, the first step being with putting together the right process and team in

place. The above-mentioned list constitutes the most commonly used software

development methodologies suited for various types of situations and solutions.

All these work well, depending upon the nature of the project. None of these are

foolproof, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages developers/project

owners must have a thorough understanding of all these methodologies for

software development.

Source - https://www.netsolutions.com/insights/top-3-software-development-methodologies-pros-

cons/