Top 6 Methodologies for Software Development
The process and processes used by software engineers and teams to produce and support their applications are referred to as software development methodology.
Each strategy has advantages and disadvantages that you should examine before deciding which is best for your company or team.
Let us briefly review the definition of SDLC and the many stages involved before we begin our list of top software product development approaches.
So, do you know what a Software Development Methodology is?
A software development methodology (also known as an SDM) is a framework for creating and managing software. They range from highly prescriptive approaches such as Agile and Scrum to more generic approaches such as waterfall. Choosing a procedure might be difficult due to the wide range of possibilities available.
However, choosing a methodology necessitates taking into account a number of elements, including your company’s culture, experience, abilities, and requirements.
The first stage of the software development life cycle is planning, which necessitates the involvement of a project manager who keeps track of all tasks and can estimate how long each one will take to finish. Project managers interact with client staff to document what needs to be done at the early planning stage, which also involves requirements analysis.
They also consider the costs of personnel and other resources. Developers integrate requirements into concrete tasks in the second step. Once they’ve finished creating computer programs based on these aims, testing occurs in stages three and four.
In stage five, developers often pass off completed software projects to quality assurance teams. Before passing a software off to clients or company employees who will use it on a daily basis, these experts make sure it functions as planned.
Below is a selection of our favorite approaches, along with information on what makes them special and how they operate.
Top 6 Software Development Methodology
1. DevOps
DevOps is a fascinating combination of programming and project management. Although it is frequently linked with startups, it may also be used in large, established businesses. DevOps practitioners are in charge of bridging the gap between software developers and quality assurance teams, ensuring that new features and products are of high quality before being deployed to end customers.
If you ever want to start your own business, DevOps is a must-have skill set. You’ll need to be able to communicate well across a number of roles and responsibilities to do well at your job—you may be required to review code or test a feature with business customers on occasion.
Pros:
- Faster Marketing Time
- High Efficiency
- Enhances Support
- High Product Quality
- Enhanced team efficiency
Cons:
- Significantly higher investment.
- Switching requires ample time.
2. Agile
Agile software development is a process for progressively and iteratively delivering projects. Agile’s major goal is to deliver projects rapidly by fostering collaboration among team members.
It also incorporates a number of software development strategies, including continuous integration and peer programming, test-driven development (TDD), pair programming, and other techniques that stress quick feedback and self-organization.
It enables quick reprioritization and required changes to stay on track. For example, if you want to incorporate a feature but it’s too expensive, Agile allows you to address those issues early in the process rather than waiting until the end of your budget cycle or after deployment to make changes, which can take months or even years.
Pros:
- High flexibility
- Faster software marketing
- Enhances collaboration
- Open to modifications
- Enhances UX
Cons:
- Minimizes designing phase emphasis.
- Final software products sometimes differ in features & performance.
3. Kanban
This methodology, which is comparable to Scrum, focuses on continual improvement. A Kanban board usually shows a timeline (with post-it notes or cards), with each card representing a single activity that hasn’t been completed yet. As you work on your homework, cards follow you about and can be used to denote different stages of completion, such as draft, under review, ready for testing, and so on.
Kanban is viewed as an agile alternative when it comes to software development approaches. It emphasizes shorter software development cycles, known as sprints, in the same manner, that Agile does; however, there are multiple ways to apply it.
Pros:
- Easy to implement
- Highly adaptable
- Advance collaboration
- Minimizes cost
- Low overheads
Cons:
- Incompatible with dynamic projects.
- Lack of consistent time frames.
4. Waterfall
The waterfall method is a basic and orderly sequential process. A typical waterfall process in software development would start with a planning phase, in which the project’s requirements are identified and examined to determine the best solution. The design phase follows, followed by the development and testing phases.
Finally, there’s a production and implementation support. This technique of working provides structure to larger projects, although it can be time-consuming due to the numerous phases involved.
Because the development team must complete each stage before proceeding on to the next, any changes along the route necessitate extensive redo of earlier phases, delaying the delivery and increasing expenses for all parties involved.
Pros:
- Excellent Documentation
- Smooth integration of new employees
- Highly accurate development charges estimation
- Supports testing phase
- The final product matches the expectations
Cons:
- Less flexible
- Longer delivery period
5. Scrum
Scrum is a software approach that enables teams to collaborate more effectively and meet project objectives. There are many distinct Scrum versions, but they all have the same roles, meetings, artifacts, and rules in common. Product owner (PO), scrum master (SM), and team members (developers/testers) are examples of roles.
Backlogs, sprint backlogs, epics, feature lists, and tasks are all examples of artifacts. Task ownership assignments, as well as time management strategies such as burn-down charts, are all covered under the rules.
Pros:
- Easy elimination of errors
- Suitable for dynamic projects
- Convenient testing procedure
- Improves team motivation
- Flexible
Cons:
- Strict governance
- Incompatible for a large team
6. Lean
Moving towards excellence is at the heart of Lean Methodology. But not in a strict sense; rather, you seek to make your product as excellent as possible by iterating on it.
The principle behind lean manufacturing is that you should only produce what you require right now. Developers should only add new features after determining how much advantage it would give, and they should evaluate all functionalities on a regular basis.
This notion ensures that you don’t waste time developing unneeded features or maintaining unused code, but it also means that you don’t have a clear picture of how your product should look at each stage of development. Lean focuses more than anything else on aligning team members so they can work together efficiently and effectively toward a common goal.
Pros:
- Rapid development
- Reduced development cost
- High efficiency of the process
- Elimination of additional features
- Compact software product development
Cons:
- Highly dependent on the team cohesiveness
- Lack of strategy
Wrapping Up
Every software development methodology has a certain goal in mind. Despite the fact that they all serve the same objective, each has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. Whatever option you choose, educate yourself on how to best utilize it in your firm and make any revisions.
Identifying what works best for your company will assist you in achieving success in any field. It can be difficult to know which option is best for you because there are so many. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution. Extensive research will go a long way toward assisting you in finding something that meets your requirements. Have fun coding!