Top 5 Software Development Methodologies for Your Future Projects

This era is all about technology, it has evolved beyond imagination, bringing the whole world at the tip of your fingers. And all of these have become possible with the help of the right software development company!

Though, to create beyond imagination technology, these companies need software development methodologies to improve the design by dividing the project into distinct phases for better product and project management.

These various software development methodologies became a great support for the project managers to accomplish their project rapidly in a short time.

Software development methodologies are software to build a structure for planning and managing the procedure of designing a specialized information system.

There are several methodologies you’ll find for software outsourcing on Google, however, the crux of the matter is to find the best among them.

As per the survey of GoodFirms Agile, Scrum, and Waterfall is the most implanted model for the projects amongst these below-listed software development models:

• Big-Bang Model,
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) Methodology,
• Agile Software Development Methodology,
• Spiral Model,
• Waterfall Model,
• Scrum Development Methodology,
• Lean Methodology,
• Prototype Model,
• Iterative Model, etc.

In this post, we’ve narrowed down the top 5 Software development Methodologies for you. Let’s start with the most hyped software development model.

1)   Agile:

“The Agile Project Management principles and framework encourage learning and adapting as an integral part of delivering value to customers.”

― Jim Highsmith

According to the report of GoodFirms, it seems that more than 60% of users prefer the Agile process to manage their projects.

The prime reason to implant the agile software development methodology is for articulating a well-designed project management system allowing changes as per the demands of clients.

This type of software development methodologies is one logical outline for working on numerous software projects.

Benefits:

• An adaptive approach to change conveniently
• Agile is perfect to handle the complexity and variability
• The agile best option to develop short sprints or iterations
• Effective co-operation and transparency among team members

Drawbacks:

• Depends on software more, so it lacks documentation facility
• It’s not for the novice developers; it requires experts
• Testers, clients, and developers must have regular face-to-face interaction

2)   Scrum:

“Strong executive commitment is a success factor for implementing Scrum, and management can best demonstrate their support of the transformation through their actions.”

― Scott M. Graffius

Scrum is one of the most popular frameworks that accomplish the best innovative and complicated product development projects efficiently.

Scrum framework includes various forms of iterations to build necessary software for your product.

It is a comprehensive strategy that effortlessly brings on track the slow-moving projects swiftly.

Benefits:

• Scrum is a cost-saving development model
• Large and complex projects are categorized into manageable sprints
• All the developments are coded and examined through the sprint analysis
• Regular planning conferences to follow up on the development and feedback

Drawbacks:

• Selecting this framework in large teams is tough
• Scrum does not keep track of the deadline for your product
• The less experienced programmer can destroy the process of development

3)   Waterfall:

“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

The waterfall model is a traditional and sequential development methodology that divides a project into pre-defined phases.

And each phase of the project must be finished before you start with the next one to avoid overlapping between the phases. 

It clarifies the method into a crystal structure with a detailed sequence that lets users understand the completion and start of each phase in the easiest manner.

Benefits:

• The methodology emphasizes a clean transfer of information at each step
• Waterfall development is the best options for beginner project managers
• You can do any variations in the software during the procedure of the development
• Preserves a lot of time with easy testing and analysis

Drawbacks:

• It is not an excellent choice for a complicated project where condition changes often
• There is no way for you to comprehend the potential outcome of a project
• Documentation requires an ample amount of time from developers and testers

4)   DevOps:

“DevOps adoption means that you are willing to change fast, develop fast, test fast, fail fast, recover fast, learn fast, and push the product/features fast to the market.”

– Pavan Belagatti

DevOps is a set of methods that promote organizational culture apart from a development methodology.

It focuses more on organizational development that enhances collaboration among the sections that contribute to the development life cycle, such as:

• Development
• Quality assurance
• Testing and analyzing
• And operations

Benefits:

• It decreased the chance of product failure in the software world
• With this model, app deployment becomes rapid and stable due to Continuous Integration and Automation Tools
• It has better team engagement and fertility towards the project
• From the start, DevOps makes the clear product vision within the team

Drawbacks:

• DevOps professionals with more experience are quite hard to find.
• Hard to find the perfect DevOps tools as per the requirement of the project.
• The method entails human interaction thoroughly making the delivery of the project slow

5)   Lean:

“Lean Development is a philosophy, a way of seeing and thinking about IT and its relationship to an organization, as much as it is a development approach.”

-Dr. Robert N. Charette

Lean is a methodology that incorporates principles and practices of the manufacturing location and implementing them widely in various industries, and software development is one of them.

Lean Software Development is a form of an agile framework, that optimizes development time and resources, at the same time excreting waste to deliver whatever the product needs.

The Lean approach is also known as an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) approach.

Benefits:

• The lean software development methodology is used for boosting the profits
• Lean management created keeping the clients’ perspective in mind
• Throughout the project, Lean software development pays profound attention to details
• Delivers a high-quality product on the estimated time

Drawbacks:

• Lean management practices are not employees friendly
• The documentation through Lean development have to be detailed
• The cost of Lean implementation is higher than others

Conclusion:

Software development methodologies are a significant part of the development projects for the companies.

Hence, the success, on-time delivery, cost-effectiveness, fulfillment of all the project elements, and client satisfaction, all of these depend on your choice of the software development model.

So, these certain benefits and drawbacks of software development methodologies will assist you in determining the ideal one as per the nature of your project.