Do you want your projects to be successful? Don’t you want the Structure of your project nice and more productive? Do you want to maintain them well?
If yes, you’ve come to the right place!
Choosing experienced developers and software managers in the team is not the only essential requirement for software development.
Selecting the right methodology for software development is as important as the team itself.
Software Development Methodology selection is an adaptive approach by software development teams as it allows better interaction between clients and the development team for efficient and timely deliverable projects.
There are different software development methodologies, but let us discuss the most commonly used ones:
Agile Software Development Methodology
The agile software development method is a process in which the project is developed in a repetitive manner. This is done so to fulfill the client’s requirements and can make changes if necessary. The iterations generally take time which is less than a month.
This development method serves as a fully collaborative environment for both the development team and the clients. A conversational process till the finalized project helps a lot as a user can change certain functionality or add some more time to time in this iterative development method.
Although this method is considered to be more helpful as there can be frequent alterations to manage risks, costs, and budget, there is no proper documentation for a software project.
There may be an incompatibility with the client’s requirements which can result in a final iterative part of the project life cycle that is unchangeable .
And as discussed earlier, choosing the right team for development yields successful software. An Agile Software development team is usually small as one department. A team comprising of freshers and experts may not be the right one to work together.
DevOps Methodology
This methodology is consist two departments. As the name implies (Dev+Ops) development team and an operational team. Both the teams work collaboratively to continue to develop and then test internally by the operational team for ensuring more productivity, more efficiency, and less cost and risks.
The development team does the planning, development, and building of the software and the operational team does testing deployment, and monitoring.
The delivery of the project is fast and continuous on daily basis or sometimes at a few hour intervals.
Teams in this method for developing software are usually largely comprising many different departments.
As there is a continuous testing in this methodology, there is proper documentation to ensure that teamwork is going well and are interacting well.
Waterfall Development Methodology
The waterfall development methodology is one that follows a sequential process from gathering the requirements to delivering the final products to the customers.
This method for project completion follows stages.
- Requirements Gathering Process
- Design Process
- Implementation Process
- Testing Process
- Maintenance
In this methodology, the requirements are first gathered with a collaboration of the development team and customers. The development team can’t jump into the design phase until they have a proper documentation of all the requirements . Next is to complete the design phase properly before heading to the implementation phase. So as the rule for test, deployment, and maintenance.
It consist of sequential stages where there is no gateway back to make any changes to the previous process. That is if you are at the implementation phase, you can’t go back to the requirements phase to make any change. Also, this method is costly too due to the proper way of each phase completion and documentation.
This method is good for smaller projects that have clear and well-gathered requirements. As there is descriptive documentation of each process.
But there may be conflict at any development phase between the development team and the customers. If the customers wants any change, there is no way to go back to any phase once done.
RAD (Rapid Action Development) Methodology
The Rapid Action Development method follows a rapid iterative process of development. This method is more compatible with smaller projects that require fast delivery to customers with high quality and low budget. This process follows 4 steps to develop a fully validated deliverable.
- Requirements
- Prototyping
- Testing
- Implementation
In this method development team and customer are in contact and negotiate for any required change in the prototype.
The project is completed with smaller prototypes to lower the risks. Customers review the prototype for a feedback if it fulfills their requirements.
The prototyping process undergo in an iterative manner of design, build and review until the customer is satisfied with the final product.
This method is great for small to medium-level projects but may not be compatible with larger ones because there is no proper documentation and mainly focus on direct interaction between the development team and the customer.
Conclusion-Which Method is Best
All software methodologies have different factors for choosing and not choosing. Some are great for larger projects and worse for smaller ones at the same time. Some are risky according to budget and usability while some are more compatible.
So while choosing a methodology that will work great for your project, you must keep in mind factors like cost, risks, performance, quality, etc.
Also if one method is not satisfactory for your project, you can use a hybrid methodology in opting for your project which will be more great choice.
