Traditional System Life Cycle
The IT industry has shown a drastic change in the recent years with the implementation of the different techniques. The business organization are implementing many methods to develop different software for their organization,
This report deals with the introduction of agile software development cycle. This report focuses on the advantages of agile software development cycle and agile methodologies.
This report outlines the limitation of waterfall software development and implementation of the agile methodologies in place of it. The replacement of the waterfall software development has been properly reflected in the report.
The traditional software development includes the waterfall, model of software development that is used for developing the stages of software development (Moran, 2014). It describes that the complex software can be made by using the sequential approach and dividing the process into small stages. The waterfall model deals with the different stages of the software development cycle that include the requirements, design, implementation, verification and maintenance. Each step of the model involves an investment of time and labor resources related to the technology. After completing the first step, customer satisfaction is necessary. On the positive note, the next step is initiated. Therefore, it is a time taking the process for the company to make software and deliver on time (Turk, France & Rumpe, 2014). The IT managers have to construct their resources and time in making software for the customer. The Gantt chart becomes a complex one to handle, as the time taken for the completion of a project is a long.
The traditional method of software development is a sequential approach that helps in maintaining the quality of the software provided to the customer. The SRS of project is prepared in a well-fashioned way for minimizing the errors and risks. On the other hand, A business organization cannot hold for a long time on a single project (Brhel et al., 2015). The cost of the production of the software increases gradually. The market value of the software decreases with the passage of time. Therefore, Waterfall model uses a proper equation to manage the sequentially executed software development process by the origination.
The Waterfall model is a two-way interaction model that is totally customer-centered approach and waits for the satisfaction of the customer in the market. This takes a long time for the business organization to prepare a single project on customer demand. The designing and development of the software is a complex part of the life cycle that is done with the concern of the customers. The model is a single directed approach and cannot go back a step. This means that once design step is passed and there is a mistake in design, the whole project goes in vain.
Agile Software Development
This model is not suitable for the complex projects including object-oriented projects. There is a high risk of failure in these kinds of projects. The model is not used in big projects as any small change in the previous step becomes difficult and costly. The SRS of the project becomes complex to understand by the customers and is not flexible for the customers (Dingsøyr & Moe, 2013). Therefore, the business organization has started neglecting the use of the waterfall model in the market for developing software.
In the customer point of view, they have to wait for a longer to receive the software from the business organization. The customer is acknowledged about each step of the life cycle that causes anxiety to the customer. During the testing stage, the recovery of the errors is difficult to handle and the customers have to satisfy with the error software and pay for it. The waterfall model is not flexible for the customers to make a big project and is costly for the customers (Turk, France & Rumpe, 2014). The customers have to wait a long time to receive the project from the company. In case the customer does not have technical knowledge, it becomes difficult for the organization to make them understand about the software and its life cycle.
Agile Software Development is a new technique of software development that consists of different methodologies including Scrum, Crystal, Feature-Driven Development and Extreme programming. These methodologies are used in different types of projects that help in completing in a formal manner. The agile technology is a group of software development methodologies that helps in iterative development of the projects including solutions for different applications in self-organizing teams (Dingsøyr & Lassenius, 2016). These methodologies help in maintaining a proper software development approach within the company. These methodologies also help in maintaining a proper relationship with the customers by providing software delivery at the time. The Scrum helps in including all the team members along with stakeholder to agree n its features. This helps in minimizing the errors and enhancing the quality of the software. The main advantage of the agile technology is the on-time delivery of the project.
The iteration system of the agile technology has helped in maintaining the quality of the project. This iterative process includes planning, requirement analysis, design, coding, unit testing and acceptance testing (Dingsøyr et al., 2016). All the steps are performed in a proper manner and consecutively. There are some principles that are followed by the agile manifesto.
Agile versus Waterfall software development model
The agile development deals with the self-motivation and development of the team members to perform consecutively in the project. This interaction of the individuals in the company helps in completing the project on time.
There are various demos working software prepared that helps in proper communication with the customers (Dingsøyr & Lassenius, 2016). This demo working software is used as a clone model of the project to be prepared by the company for the clients.
The proper requirements are not gathered and accessed at the starting of the project. Therefore, customer collaboration is necessary to meet their needs and requirements. There are various factors for failure in gathering data and information regarding the project including lack of awareness and time (Alahyari, Svensson & Gorschek, 2017). Therefore, customer interaction helps in gathering the knowledge regarding the project and enhancing its quality.
The agile software development is the concern with quick responses and changes according to the customers. This principle helps in providing quick responses to the queries of customers and make changes in the project accordingly. Therefore, this principle also helps in maintaining a good relationship with the customers of the company.
There are various differences in the agile software development and traditional method including waterfall model. The Agile Software development model is a modern approach towards the development of the software by the company (Vijayasarathy & Butler, 2016).
The Agile deals with the adaptive software development methods in the company. On the other hand, waterfall model refers to the predictive approach. In predictive approach, the teams work with complete planning and deliver the task in a long time gap to analyze the planning done. The predictive method depends on the requirement and analysis method that helps in identifying the requirement and analyzing it according to the needs of the customer in the market (Chari & Agrawal, 2017). There are changes made according to the needs of the customers and in a case of any errors in the methods.
Agile software development model depends on the adaptive approach that deals with planning criteria and there is clarity of the task for the future work. Therefore, the project is tested at every step that helps in minimizing the errors in the steps. This feature has helped in communicating with the team members and changing dynamically based on the requirements of the customers.
The traditional software development model including waterfall model is a time taking the model for completing a single project. The model used to concern with the customers in each step that causes a long time to complete. In the other hand, the agile model does not spend time in planning for the project (Mitsuyuki et al., 2017). The customer interaction is a key point for the agile model that helps in completing a project within a short time.
The agile software development is suitable for the realistic projects that are complex for the traditional model. This helps in transforming an old approach into a new approach that supports the frequent change in the project at any stage. On the other hand, the Waterfall model does not support any changes in the project at any step. This is a single-directed approach and cannot be revert into previous step (Repenning, Kieffer & Repenning, 2017).
The Waterfall model is a structured model of steps whereas agile model focuses on the flexibility and scalability of project management. This helps in maintaining the requirement of the customer in the market. The customer receives a strong sense of ownership while alluring with the agile model (Lei et al., 2017). On the other hand, waterfall model does not reflect the customer approach.
As a CIO of the company, I would look for an appropriate use of Waterfall model and agile model in different cases. There are different projects handled by the company provided by the clients and different projects have different requirements. I would use waterfall model in case the result of project is known. I might use waterfall model in which deadline or time is not a factor of rejection.
On the other hand, I would choose the Agile model for the project in which speed is important rather than a quality of the project. I have skilled employees in the company to access the agile technology. When the customer comments are necessary during the project, I would use agile model for the software development. There is a less chance of failure in the agile model than the waterfall model. Therefore, I would prefer the agile model in important projects offered by the clients. This helps in providing a quality work to the clients. Therefore, in different circumstances, I would prefer both the model accordingly.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the use of software development model helps in maintaining a project in a professional manner. The waterfall model is based on the planning of the steps included in the project. Therefore, it takes a lot of time to complete a project. The Agile model has able to replace the traditional model of software development by providing flexibility. The Agile model focuses on the agile methodologies that help in providing the iterative method to perform the projects within time.
References
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Chari, K., & Agrawal, M. (2017). The impact of incorrect and new requirements on waterfall software project outcomes. Empirical Software Engineering, 1-21.
Dingsøyr, T., & Lassenius, C. (2016). Emerging themes in agile software development: Introduction to the special section on continuous value delivery. Information and Software Technology, 77, 56-60.
Dingsøyr, T., & Lassenius, C. (2016). Emerging themes in agile software development: Introduction to the special section on continuous value delivery. Information and Software Technology, 77, 56-60.
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Dingsøyr, T., Fægri, T. E., Dybå, T., Haugset, B., & Lindsjørn, Y. (2016). Team performance in software development: research results versus agile principles. IEEE Software, 33(4), 106-110.
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Mitsuyuki, T., Hiekata, K., Goto, T., & Moser, B. (2017). Evaluation of Project Architecture in Software Development Mixing Waterfall and Agile by Using Process Simulation. Journal of Industrial Integration and Management, 1750007.
Moran, A. (2014). Agile Software Development. In Agile Risk Management(pp. 1-16). Springer International Publishing.
Repenning, J., Kieffer, D., & Repenning, N. (2017). Agile for Everyone Else: Using Triggers and Checks to Create Agility Outside of Software Development.
Turk, D., France, R., & Rumpe, B. (2014). Assumptions underlying agile software development processes. arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.6610.
Turk, D., France, R., & Rumpe, B. (2014). Limitations of agile software processes. arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.6600.
Vijayasarathy, L. R., & Butler, C. W. (2016). Choice of software development methodologies: Do organizational, project, and team characteristics matter?. IEEE Software, 33(5), 86-94.