Top 10 Software Development Methodologies For Your Tech Business

Software development methodologies represent structured approaches or ways of building useful tech products through efficient strategies. The use of technology is exponentially rising for a long period of time and the respective software development methodologies are also in need of improvement and upgradation to match the pace.

When software is efficiently developed and does amazing on its mission, most of the attention remains only on its success. But, the smart strategies and work approaches behind it often do not get that popularity. A huge number of responsible people work tirelessly to build remarkable applications based on genuine problem-solving ideas and to efficiently run them to achieve success. Hence, here we will focus on the most popular software development methodologies that have been revolutionizing the respective field.

1. Agile Development Methodology

If you keep abreast of the latest tech updates, you must be aware of the immense popularity that agile methodology holds in the modern tech world. The foundation of this highly efficient methodology is by taking a completely different approach than the conventional methods. That means agile methodologies put more focus on satisfying the users by making an effectively working version of the software always available for them while the traditional methodologies have always emphasized more on maintaining lengthy documentation, illogically lengthy planning, and perfect execution of processes.

Agile methodologies get the chain of tasks broken down into short sprints that should take a maximum of 1 to 4 weeks to complete. It works by including all necessary tasks in small iterations that need a complete life cycle of the product to be completed in every iteration. Developers plan & design a working version of the product with the most necessary features, develop it, test it, launch it, and then keep running iterations for adding and updating features in it.

One of the most important things in agile development methodology is receiving constant feedback from customers, building strategies accordingly, and working to improve the product.

Advantages:

Working in small iterations makes it possible to identify problems before they become larger, and lets teams test & correct the issues with minimal effort.
Receiving constant feedback from the customers allows the development team to address and implement any changes or improvements at a much faster pace.
As agile methodologies emphasize frequency and transparency during development works, they make it possible to have absolute clarity between team members. As a result the product always runs with maximum efficiency.
All the minor to major aspects of the agile methodologies ensure that the deliverables always have the best quality.
Agile methodologies are tremendously beneficial for businesses due to their focus on the crucial aspects of the business.
With agile methodologies, you always have flexibility and control over the schedules and costs of a project.
Agile methodologies allow users to keep track of the features and provide them with the freedom to choose the best ones for them.

Disadvantages:

Such immense attention to detail requires team members to have detailed face-to-face interactions and in-depth planning to make sure that the project achieves its goals effectively. As a result, these methodologies bound team members for investing more time and putting more commitment into their professional lives.
As we previously mentioned, documentation is not a highly important part of agile, and this practice causes issues later on in the development process.
The constant customer feedback system often causes team members to lose focus due to overwhelming change and updation requests.
As agile methodologies are not quite structured, they can only be efficiently executed by experienced developers who are capable of working independently.

2. DevOps Development Methodology

DevOps is not just a word that seems to represent development operations. Being one of the most popular and effective software development methodologies, it comes with immense benefits including an efficient collaboration between the different segments of the software development life cycle, such as development, quality assurance, security, and operations.

Now, the reason behind the popularity of DevOps is that the effective integration between the two most important departments i.e. development and operations brings in highly important advantages for the continuous integration and continuous delivery model.

The modern tech field is very fond of using DevOps due to its ability to cause effective collaboration across almost the entire software development life cycle. Now, let’s check out why.

Advantages:

One of the prime values of DevOps is offering rapid deliveries, which is a great support in maintaining a strong continuous delivery system. That means DevOps focuses on keeping the balance between business continuity and publishing recent updates. As a result, it becomes able to continue innovation and improvement works for a better version of the product.
DevOps is a fast process and it is based on an approach that focuses on multiple ongoing processes to work simultaneously and consequently, the process becomes faster and simpler for the entire business. Along with the fast pace, DevOps easily adapts to changes in the market and enables businesses to maintain their growth by producing great results.
One of the strongest pillars of DevOps is effective collaboration among teams and that relies on strong accountability and ownership by the team members. This results in efficient synchronization between the development team and operations team, who are always doing their best to deliver faster and more effective products.
While continuously improving the product and infrastructure by implementing constant changes, the products always ensure robust security and stand out to be competitive in the market.

Disadvantages:

Some industries have strict regulations about putting a project through extensive testing before moving it to the operations phase. As DevOps works with collaboration between the development and operations phases, it can create issues in such industries.
Using the DevOps approach in your business demands cultural change and for that, businesses often need to restart their processes for efficient growth.
While DevOps implies continuous upgradation, some companies do not often prefer that because that requires them to use lots of resources to use multiple skills at the same time.
The involvement of different departments in DevOps often causes different departments to use different environments. In such situations, undetected issues can go into production.
Speed and security can sometimes get compromised in DevOps. In crucial projects, not ensuring them in a single stage may make you consider a separate plan for security at every stage of the DevOps workflow.

3. Scrum Development Methodology

Scrum is by far one of the most flexible and fast software development methodologies available out there, and this is the reason behind its popularity in companies where the requirements change frequently and rapid changes are often required.

The scrum methodology is typically based on the agile philosophy that turns it into a fast-paced process where projects are executed in small sprints. Each sprint can take up to 4 weeks. This enables the entire team to quickly identify issues, develop & implement solutions, test them, and gather feedback in a small cycle that takes very little time. So, the best part about this methodology is that it enhances the overall speed of the projects.

The main roles in the scrum methodology are performed by Product Owner, Scrum Master, and the development team. The product owner is responsible for taking input from the client and taking care that the team is working in the right direction to fulfill the client’s requirements. The Scrum master performs the duties of a facilitator and makes sure that the team members are familiar with the Scrum process. And, finally, the development team carries out the responsibilities of executing the development.

Advantages:

The scrum methodology is a great choice for fast-moving and cutting-edge development projects that require rapid coding work and faster testing of errors that can then be easily rectified.
It consists of short iterations that offer quick solutions to issues.
It allows you to execute projects with the business requirements documentation and other signs that contribute to success.
In the scrum methodology, the teams are the responsible ones to make the decisions.
As this process relies on regular feedback, it becomes very responsive to changes.
It involves regular meetings among the team members to make sure that everyone matches the pace. Furthermore, this helps in achieving better productivity among the team.
Frequently updating the progress helps in having better control over the project development steps.
Scrum meetings play an important role in noticing and appreciating the contributions of individual members.
The scrum methodology is a highly efficient approach to delivering a quality product within a scheduled time.

Disadvantages:

One of the most important points in following the scrum methodology is that there is mostly no definite end date for a project, and the project management stakeholders often get impatient and keep demanding the delivery of new functionalities,
It is quite important for the scrum methodology to have all team members equally skilled and committed. This requirement often causes huge expenses to get such skilled team members.
Scrum is good for small and fast-paced projects but not quite suitable for large, complicated projects.
If a proper estimation of project costs and time is not maintained, this type of development model will suffer.
The daily scrum meetings often become very draining for the team members.
For the success of a scrum model, the Scrum master must trust every team member he/she is managing. Otherwise, if the team members are tremendously micromanaged and have strict control over them, that will be extremely frustrating for them and it will lead to demoralization and the failure of the project.
If the testing team becomes unable to conduct regression testing after every sprint, it becomes very difficult to manage the product quality.

4. Waterfall Development Methodology

The waterfall model might be one of the oldest software development methodologies ever used but it is still quite relevant and useful in many projects today. It is a quite simple, linear method that has the different stages and steps of the development process moving in a sequential manner.

The best part about this method is that it can be easily understood, and for that reason, team members who have lesser design experience, often prefer this methodology. The most important condition of this method is that each stage must be properly completed before moving on to the next stage. For example, the team must plan and establish all the requirements before they move with designing the project.

However, as you can enjoy the linear flow of stages in this methodology, the downside is that you cannot go back to this system. Due to this reason, the waterfall method becomes a non-flexible method and it is often avoided for projects whose requirements are changing rapidly.

Advantages:

Being a simple and easily understandable method, it is a great choice for beginners or less experienced developers.
The waterfall method is capable of saving a great amount of time at all the phases by processing and completing them at a given time.
As the waterfall model is very rigid, it becomes quite easy to manage it.
In the waterfall method, each phase has its deliverables and an individual review process.
The requirements are efficiently defined and the information is properly communicated in the waterfall model. As a result, it turns out to be an effective approach for smaller projects.
It becomes easier for you to perform the testing that refers to the defined scenarios in the earlier functional specification.

Disadvantages:

Many important projects need continuous maintenance and the waterfall model is not suitable for them.
As this method does not focus on getting customer feedback from the early stages of the project, the chances of the project deviating from its mission become higher.
To use the waterfall model, the requirements must be precisely defined and available up-front, and this can be a cumbersome thing to accomplish.
This method involves testing only at the end of the development phase and that becomes difficult in the presence of some problems that are harder to fix at a later stage. Also, this process makes it impossible to make changes to the completed software if any issue is encountered in the testing phase. Otherwise, worse issues can occur.
The waterfall model leaves no way to know the end result of the entire project.
This model’s rigidity leaves no room for changes and that makes it unsuitable for complex projects.
As this method involves too much documentation, the team members got very less time to utilize in actually solving the user’s issues.

5. Rapid Application Development

The Rapid Application Development (RAD) model came into practice in 1991 and started being called the foundation of modern iterative frameworks. The prime focus of this methodology has always been getting good quality products built in shorter time frames, and that stands as the reason for its name being the Rapid Application Development model.

This method consists of a 4-step framework i.e. defending project requirements, prototyping, testing, and implementation. The phenomenon that differentiates RAD from linear models is that it focuses on building prototypes with the given requirements and testing them out with the customer. This practice is performed through multiple iterations until the customer is satisfied with the results.

In this model, testing the prototypes involves valuable feedback that helps in getting rid of the product risk. RAD enhances the possibility of successful product releases within the stipulated timeline, and one of the prime reasons behind that is the use of development tools that efficiently automate and simplify the development process.

Advantages:

The Rapid Application Development model involves regular customer feedback, which plays a crucial role in reducing the risk and the necessary efforts on the part of the software developer.
The efficient channel of customer feedback works for improving the scope of any software development project.
Besides regular feedback, this method also enables the clients to take quick reviews for the project.
Each phase in RAD is responsible for delivering the highest priority functionality to the clients.
It is a great choice for small and medium applications.
This model significantly reduces the time-to-market.
The prototyping nature of the method reduces the possibility of defects in the product.

Disadvantages:

To achieve success through this model, the team as well as each individual member needs to perform well in clearly identifying the requirements of the business.
This model depends too much on the responsiveness of customers.
This method is applicable only to the systems that can be modularized to be built using this methodology.
A successful RAD model needs a team of highly skilled developers along with a team of expert designers, and that is not possible for every organization.
This model usually involves high costs of modeling and automated code generation. As a result, this becomes unsuitable for projects that have budget constraints.
In this model, it becomes very difficult to keep track of progress and problems accustomed because it does not involve much documentation to demonstrate what is already done.

6. Feature-Driven Development

Feature Driven Development or FDD is another efficient software development methodology that is based on Agile. It works to get success in a simple objective that is preventing confusion that leads to spending huge amounts of money on reworking.

The working of FDD involves breaking down the development activities into a feature list of the entire model. Then for each feature, developers perform an iteration consisting of planning, designing, and building. The usual time period required for accomplishing a feature is not more than two weeks. However, the common misconception about this method is that it focuses on each of the software features but, in reality, it does not.

The FDD model is popular for providing outcomes faster in the form of impactful results for each of the activities that are listed as features. This method of software development needs you to communicate information through detailed documentation. Mostly, large teams who are working on a project using object-oriented technology, prefer to use this model.

Advantages:

This model improves the overall efficiency of the project by breaking down complicated tasks into smaller activities.
In this method, the progress of the project is tracked by a feature that is a focused approach.
This model is very helpful in moving larger-size projects and obtaining repeatable success.
To reduce the overall time of the project, this model lets multiple teams work simultaneously.
This method is based on predefined standards and best practices that result in predictable success.
The simple five-process approach of this model helps to get work done within a short period of time as well as in an easier manner.
Being built on top standards and industry best practices, this model becomes quite an efficient one.

Disadvantages:

This model is unsuitable for smaller projects so, if you are an individual software developer, it is not a good choice for you.
As this model is driven by activities, it can sometimes deviate from its main goal which is delivering value to the end users.
This model does not provide any written documentation to the clients. As a result, they become unable to keep abreast of their software.
This model has a high dependency on the main developer. That means that person has to perform multiple roles such as lead designer, coordinator, and mentor.

7. Prototype Methodology

The prototype model works with the system of making developers work on the prototype version of the final product instead of focusing on developing full-fledged software. Then the prototype goes into customer testing, evaluation, and feedback.

The feedback gathering is extremely important as based on it, the prototype is run through several iterations of refinement before being called satisfactory by the customers. The reason behind the popularity of the prototype method is that it helps in identifying potential issues before the beginning of actual development.

This model is called successful not based only on the development team but also on how well they communicate with the customers carrying out the test. Another crucial point is that the development team usually bears the cost of building the prototype.

This is a great software development methodology as it solves a number of issues that normally occur in a conventional waterfall model.

Advantages:

As it is capable of getting rid of potential issues in the early development stage, it becomes able to significantly reduce the product failure risk.
This model allows clients to experience using the prototype and get an in-depth feel of the functionalities developed in it. As a result, this model becomes able to ensure a greater level of customer satisfaction and comfort.
Due to the communication between the software development team and the client during the project, a good environment and efficiency are maintained.
This model is very effective at identifying the scope of the refinement and accordingly accommodating new changes in the given requirements.
If there is a lack of required documents, the requirement gathering and requirement analysis compensates for that.

Disadvantages:

As usually developers bear the cost of prototyping, there must be a good focus on using minimal resources. Otherwise, the organization’s development cost will stretch insanely.
In most cases, the clients have too much involvement and if they are not aligned with the software developer, the efficiency gets reduced.
Sometimes, just after seeing an early prototype, customers demand the delivery of the actual product.
In some cases, customers may not be satisfied with the prototype and lose interest in the product.
The requirement of too many modifications is not suitable for this approach as it can easily hamper the workflow of the entire software development process.

8. Lean Development Methodology

Besides being one of the most popular software development methodologies, the lean development model is also an efficient mindset. Originally, it was built based on the lean manufacturing principles of Toyota. It involves practices of incorporating principles and practices from the manufacturing space and applying them broadly to a variety of industries, including software development. With this model’s guiding principles, developers avoid non-productive activities while not making any compromises in delivering quality tasks.

Despite being an amazing methodology for the practical application of development best practices, this model does not offer instructions for scaling those practices across the organization as well as applying them beyond development-type work.

However, this method is preferred for its focus on continuous learning and deferment of decisions. It encourages teams to keep an open mind during development and take all factors into account before finalizing a decision. In this model, developers have to identify the bottlenecks that can hamper the project as well as its goal of establishing a flawless system. One of the prime aspects of this methodology is establishing good communication to enhance team collaboration and maintain good human respect.

Advantages:

This model improves the software development process by eliminating various forms of wastage, such as redundant codes, repetitive tasks, and unnecessary documentation.
This method involves assessment of customers’ behavior from where you can empathize with their pain points and convert their feedback into actions.
As the lean model emphasizes efficiency, the time-to-market for the software becomes shorter.
This method is capable of reducing the overall cost of development.
Using this method provides you more time to improve other operational processes.
As this software development model gives more decision-making authority to the team members, they become more motivated.

Disadvantages:

To achieve success in the lean development model, you need to have a team of highly-skilled developers, and that is not an easy thing to accomplish.
It needs very detailed documentation, which eventually becomes a huge burden on the business analyst.
If you have less experienced developers, they might get overwhelmed by the responsibilities of the project, and lose their focus.
The success of this model requires immense precision in tracking the progress of this process.

9. Dynamic Systems Development Methodology

The Dynamic Systems Development Model is an efficient software development methodology that is actually based on the principles of the Rapid Application Development model. This iterative and incremental approach focuses on the objective of providing prompt delivery and aligning project goals to the business needs. It consists of four iterative phases of feasibility and business study. Those phases are functional model, design, build, and implementation.

This method keeps end users greatly involved throughout the process of providing feedback. That helps a lot in keeping the project on track according to its goals. Also, contrary to most agile methodologies, the dynamic systems model involves detailed documentation, which is also a very helpful practice.

Advantages:

One of the best parts of a dynamic systems model is that due to the iterative approach, the basic functionality is delivered quickly, and more functionalities are delivered at frequent intervals.
This model makes developers have better control of the development timeline and budget.
The high involvement of users makes it possible for them to get a good grip on the software development project.
This method involves the creation of necessary documentation throughout the development phase.
In this model, approach projects are delivered on time without making any compromise on the budget.
This software development methodology is capable of establishing good communication between end users and developers, which helps them stay on the right track.

Disadvantages:

This model is quite expensive to implement as it needs the high involvement of users and developers, and that takes a huge amount of money to train them.
The requirement of significant user involvement in this model is also quite difficult to fulfill.
It becomes cumbersome for small teams to execute this methodology.
Being a relatively new model, it is not easy to understand.
This method comes with a quite complex concept and implementation.
There is a huge involvement of the progressive development of project requirements in this model.

10. Extreme Programming Methodology

Extreme programming is another useful software development methodology that is based on agile practices. This model, which is also known as XP methodology, uses software development best practices to produce higher quality software within a very unstable environment. Besides allowing greater flexibility within the modeling process, it also comes with great values that are simplicity (developing only what is required), communication (making teams seamlessly collaborate and work together on every bit of the project), consistent feedback, and respect.

Though the main goal of this methodology is to keep it cost-effective, the changing of requirements at later stages in the project causes the cost to go very high.

Advantages:

This model makes it possible to cut costs by solving problems through team discussions and avoiding unnecessary documentation.
In this model, huge time savings becomes also possible due to the focus being on the timely delivery of final products.
As this model helps in establishing rational plans and schedules, the developers become personally committed to their schedules.
This model emphasizes customer involvement.
As this model stays updated with most modern development methods, developers become able to produce quality software.

Disadvantages:

According to some conceptions, extreme programming is more focused on the code rather than on design, and that can be a potential problem because good design is extremely crucial for software applications.
XP projects often do not have proper defect documentation, and that lack of defect documentation may cause the occurrence of similar bugs in the future.
In this model, there is a requirement for meetings at frequent intervals, and that can cause enormous expenses to customers.
As at the start of this method, nobody is aware of the entire scope and requirements of the project, it almost does not allow you to get exact estimates of the work effort needed to provide a quote.
The effectiveness of this method depends on the people involved.
This model requires too many development changes, and that is quite difficult for software developers to adopt every time.

Efficient Testing Completes A Good Development Project

You can clearly see every software development methodology comes with its own sets of advantages and disadvantages. Depending on your project requirements, you are the person responsible for choosing the best model for your project. That’s why we recommend you thoroughly go through the article to acknowledge yourself with all the necessary information.

Now, if you are aware of how things operate in the technology industry, you must know how important it is to get your application efficiently tested using an advanced testing tool. And, there we must mention how amazingly Preflight solves all your testing needs without requiring you to have any coding skills. As you will surely be amazed by its benefits, you must consider getting a glimpse for free.

To know more about Preflight, feel free to reach out to us anytime or visit our website. Also, if you love to read about the latest tech updates, do consider checking out our blog page.