Today, the software market is booming. Every business is moving to digital transformation. The reason behind the insane demand for digital products is that technology provides accuracy in a short time. Make strategic planning before you initiate your project. Define your end goals and what value your software is going to add to consumers’ lives. Today software development companies aim to provide the most productive solution at very low cost. The right software development methodology will shorten the time of the development cycle while maintaining quality.
Integrating the software into your business will increase the security level and efficiency of operations.
There are many software development methodologies available that you can employ. Every methodology has different functions and delivers different desired results. Understand the configuration of development methodology and pick anyone that fits your requirement.
These development methodologies establish the framework for organizing the development, planning, and management of information systems.
The famous software development methodologies and their specifications are highlighted in this article. The list of software development models used by the majority of software development firms is given below.
What Is a Good Software Development Methodology?
Even though the phrase may be self-explanatory. It would still be a good idea to agree on what software engineering techniques represent.
Additionally, which methodology is the right option for your specific project?
An IT development process is a set of procedures required to create an intuitive software or digital product. The steps that create the life cycle of development include research, planning, design, and development. However, these steps may vary depending on the chosen strategy.
So, how to figure out which development methodology will be the right option?
Unsurprisingly, every project depends on the specific demands, resources, and objectives of your organization. Even though every business desire to employ the best stack that will give you the most process results. Match the functions of development methodologies with your requirements and see which one is more suitable for you.
Feature Driven Development Methodology (FDD)
This iterative approach uses object modeling in conjunction. It works well for an extensive team working on large-scale projects. Analyzing the system’s scope is the first stage in this procedure. Following the evaluation, each feature’s domain models have to be designed in detail, and developers review the entire system’s scope once again.
Developers combine all domain models to create a single effective model. This approach to software development entails a few steps: creating a structure of a complete model, creating a list of functions, planning, designing, and developing by feature.
FDD Methodology Steps and Specifications
- List of features
- Design by feature
- Development of the entire project model
- Build by feature
- Feature-focused iterations with achievements
- It eliminates the documentation process for project managers.
- Do not use it on smaller projects, as it is specifically designed for high-end projects.
Scrum Methodology
The most well-known framework built on the Agile technique is Scrum. It is empirical, and software developers use it to address any rapidly evolving or important requirements.
Iterations in scrum are known as sprints. It begins with quick sprint-by-sprint planning. Teams follow daily scrum meetings that highlight workflow, and progress, which conclude with a final review given by team managers.
Scrum Methodology Steps and Specifications
- Sprint review meetings
- Sprint execution
- Sprint planning
- Retrospective
- Release
- Newbies or entry-level developers cannot use this development model as it requires a lot of expertise.
- However, this methodology is not a good option for large-scale projects.
- It offers you an exact estimation of the time and cost required to build successful software.
Agile Methodology
The agile software development methodology is primarily concerned with finishing a product through teamwork. It entails iterations, which minimize the period of entire development cycles. Every iteration is properly planned out and resembles a brief software project that lasts for a week.
Tasks such as adding planning and analysis, new functionalities, designing, coding, documentation, and testing falls in the iterations. When the iterations rise the team of developers evaluates the project and rearranges the backlog. It is a good technique that helps a team to assure product deployment with a better version in every iteration. However, agile also has some drawbacks, but mainly development teams use it.
Agile Methodology Steps and Specifications
- Development iteration
- QA iteration
- Scope adjustment
- Retrospective
- It lacks efficiency in documentation
- If you make a good vision of product specifications, you will not face any lack of project vision.
Lean Methodology
The Lean technique is designed to create change-tolerant and low-cost software. Lean manufacturing minimizes a lot of resources that will save one-third of your actual decided budget. It will eliminate all sorts of unnecessary excesses, including paperwork, meetings, and other resources. It makes direct communication between teams that maximize the speed of development.
Lean Methodology Steps and Specifications
- Establish pull
- Create flow
- Map the value stream
- Identify value
- Continuous improvement
- It is cost-effective
- Lean Methodology empowers the development cycle and motivates teams.
Waterfall Methodology
The waterfall is the most preferred methodology in the IT industry. It is a traditional method and well-known methodology for software development and maintenance.
It is linear with all projects progressing in every stage. It defines the goals in each phase of development. The speed of development increases with the use of the waterfall methodology. This methodology is rigid, you can interrogate changes once you are done with development. So, make sure you list down all requirements before starting the development.
Waterfall Methodology Steps and Specifications
- Requirements
- System design
- Development
- QA
- Deployment & maintenance
- It simplifies the testing methods
- It shows the fixed deadlines for every development phase
- It is cost-effective and saves time
Prototyping Methodology
The benefit of the prototype methodology is that it caters to all software development process flaws. In the initial stage of this methodology software, designers create a prototype of the product. They release a demo version to show how the software will perform and what solutions it will provide.
Prototyping Methodology Steps and Specifications
- Determine objectives
- Develop / Refine / Demonstrate
- Test
- Implement
- Prototype methodology shows all risks and solutions for error in the initial phase of development.
- The reported gathering and analyzing become easy with this methodology.
Dynamic Systems Development Model (DSD)
The development of this model is iterative, a dynamic system development model that is a goal-oriented strategy. Additionally, it offers many specifications, such as lightness, flexibility, and continuous development. Developers use this model because this dynamic system development is effective to make user-centric solutions. This model saves your actual budget and determines all deadlines in the early stage of development.
DSD Model Steps and Specifications
- Business study and feasibility
- Functional model iteration
- Design and build iteration
- Implementation
- Simple to use, it gives access to developers having end users.
- This process heavily incorporates end users. Furthermore, it shows a deep grasp of how the system works.
- This methodology always keeps projects within their defined budgets and time frames.
Final thoughts
All these seven methodologies are the most used models by a top digital creative agency. From industry standards, all these methodologies are used to excel in the development cycle. However, you might face complications by choosing any of them for your product, but you will be satisfied with the results. Furthermore, every methodology has different characteristics and benefits
