Advantages And Disadvantages Of Software Development Life Cycle

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1. INTRODUCTION Developing computer software and information systems is a procedure that has been usually worked on by various methodologies of development. Software development methodology is defined as the structure of planning, managing and controlling the process of building up an information system. Officially, the methodology of software development is called Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), which is used mainly in various engineering and industrial work areas like software engineering, applied engineering, mechanical engineering, systems engineering, computational science and computer science. A number of models have been suggested by researchers and investigators in an international basis as a consequence of many studies…show more content…
· Projects that consider quality more important than schedule or cost prefer this methodology. 2.2. Disadvantages of waterfall model: § You cannot go back and modify anything in the previous phases once the application reaches testing phase. § During the life cycle, software cannot be produced to work until the application is in the final stages. § High risk rate and confusion. § This model is not suitable for complex projects that are object oriented § Not good for long and continuing projects. § A poor model for projects that face a moderate to high risk of requirement changes. § Phases are dependent on each other so any small change to a previous phase will cause a big cost and problem in the following phases. Although the waterfall model has some disadvantages, it is yet useful for some kinds of projects and can produce considerable cost and time effectiveness when implemented appropriately (Bows, 2014). 2.3. When to use waterfall methodology? 1. When the picture of final project is clear and obvious. 2. When customers are not capable of modifying the scope of project after it is…show more content…
It mainly depends on the type and situation of the project to decide which methodology is more convenient. If the project has a rapid change environment, Agile methodology will be more suitable. If the customer knows specifically what the final project should be, then waterfall is a suitable choice. Neither the Agile method nor the Waterfall method is better than the other because every method has its uses, advantages and disadvantages. Static projects better use the Waterfall method whereas smaller projects where modifications are likely to be made with the design phase, Agile method is more suitable (Lotz, 2013). In terms of flexibility, Agile methodology meets the customer’s requirements more than the Waterfall methodology. In addition, highly motivated and cooperative teams in Agile methods are highly productive. According to an Agile Survey (2013), people choose Agile methods for three main reasons which are: accelerate time to market, manage changing priorities, and better align IT/business objectives (Palmiquist et. al, 2013). Fig 4. Shows the survey results: Fig 4. The top 3 reasons people choose Agile from the Version One State Agile Survey
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