Why Agile Is Better That the Waterfall

Why Agile is better that the Waterfall

"You have to fail; it is how you bounce back that makes you successful"(Hall, 2010).

This paper will show the reason why an agile based methodology is better to use in software engineering than a structured based one. Software development methodology can come in many shapes and forms, a typical structured development methodology, like the Waterfall model which strengths include but are not limited to: has the ability to minimize planning overhead as well as being a useful method for new or inexperienced staff if the project has clear and easy to understand requirements. This is in comparison to the iterative and incremental development process models of Agile. Aaron Hall of Intergen uses an iterative based methodology called the PIE methodology (Hall, 2010).PIE strengths include but are not limited to: the ability to regularly see progress, re-evaluate priorities if necessary and change deliverables or features if clients require them (Mole, 2007).

Where Tim Penhey of Canonical used a methodology called Test-driven Development or TDD (Penhey, 2010). Test-driven Development strengths include but are not limited to: easy testability, more clean and clear code, and native support with version control methods.

Steve Chernishov of Unitlink used the CDM (Chernishov development method) methodology. Chernishov development method strengths include but are not limited to: it does not need to rely on experience of the developer and saves time by not needing to do a lot of planning, QA testing or documentation. In the fast paced world of software development, agile-based methodologies seem to produce projects that are less likely to fail than those that use structured based methodologies (Larman, 2004).

PIE is based off the Microsoft Solution Framework for Agile Software Development (MSF4ASD). PIE is the methodology used by Aaron Hall. PIE is composed of five stages: envision, plan, develop, stabilise and finally deploy. The...