Sdlc

Waterfall vs Agile

In software development life cycle, there are various models available for an organization to adapt. Best suitable working SDLC model depends on the organization, its structure, the nature of business its involved with and the current demand of business from its IT. In many cases Waterfall is a desirable model which gives organizations an opportunity to plan well before actual implementation. Waterfall model allows organizations to focus on one task at a time which gives an additional benefit to think through each aspect of software development. If few things are not clear at initial phase, there will be time for getting more clarity later before actual implementation. Waterfall model also provides proper checks to be performed before finishing one step to move ahead with another, this further increase the chance of successful software development.

Waterfall model does have cons associated with it. It’s not possible with waterfall model to get the initial version of software up and running due to long development cycle involving many stages before the actual implementation of software. This situation is not desirable in if business is not clear about what they actually want and need a quick help in deciding future of the software by looking at its initial version and adding/improving upon it. Long development cycle also poses negative impact if ‘time-to-market’ is critical for any business. Furthermore, it is expensive to make a change once a particular step is done as each step requires specific set of people working together for example Architecture phase will have Architects working more actively on the project, once the phase is over, their involvement will be required again to analyze the new change and make appropriate change.

All these cons have become constraints for many organizations which are short on time and budget yet want to capture the market on-time. These organizations need quick development cycle with facility to make and...