Whether you want to be a successful tech entrepreneur or you want to enhance your business. In fact, it is crucial to focus on your investment, product quality, productivity, and time. In order to utilize your resources and time in the right, you need to choose the right methodology regardless of your business size.
When it comes to software development, methodology and work culture plays a vital role. A methodology is useful to create structure, plan and control the process of creating the required system. Methodologies are the first-ever step in creating a development process. And, there is no part of the technicality. All you need is a proper plan and choose which of the methods you will be able to adopt for the process.
Choosing the right methodology will help you build a great client base, accurate and quality work and submission. Also, it is easy to trace the progress, and get feedback. Over the years, there are a lot of new methods able to make sure the company remains viable for the industry. Obviously, we should not use the same ways and technology for a project. That you were using 5 or 7 years back. Nowadays, Software Development frequently prefers following methodologies:
Methodologies Used in Software Development
Waterfall method
Being one of the oldest of all the methods used today, this method is still prevailing because of its effective methodology. True to its name, it follows a sequential order of work to make sure that nothing goes wrong at the end of the project. This methodology requires a lot of research and understanding about the need and scope for the project before anything is begun. Since the work starts with a defined goal, we should fix everything in between the project.
If we have to solve all issues or alteration through midway, we have to do it from the beginning. Only after a process is completely over, we can move the project to its next phase. So technically, there is no going back once the process is done. Even though this seems to be a lengthy process, the quality of the output will be second to none. There will not be any requirements for corrections once the project is done. And this is one of the major reasons why this method was able to prevail so long.
Feature Driven Development method (FDD)
This methodology is a relatively dull down version of the LEAN and Agile practices. This method of developing software follows the golden rule of “two weeks.” We should complete anything related to the project within those two weeks so that we gonna run the next stage of the project. No matter which method you choose, the end product is what matters the most. There are five stages to carry FDD;
- Development of an overall model
- Determining the features list
- Planning the development process under the 2-weeks rule
- Designing the feature
- Build the feature
What this allows the developer to do is that if any features are impossible to finish within the 2-weeks, we can further divide them into multiple functions. It makes sure that there is a development in the project throughout the project. Also, it helps with any surprises that may jump out of nowhere as the project is continuously in progress. There is always room for adjustments.
AGILE method
The core reason for this method is to cope up with the changing demands and faster results. It is a client satisfaction-oriented methodology and requires a relatively larger team to do a project under this methodology.
Unlike a fixed goal development, this is more likely to be on the working software development process. Teams work on different parts of the software that has their own deliverables. By doing so, that supports completing work and reducing the time frame. The agile process does not follow the absolute ant path of development. Different teams develop random fragments of the software and finally put them together at the end. It allows the developers to get reviews about that particular process even before they develop the final product.
So, Teams develop, review, and correct a lot of things even before fully developing the software. It is one of the best methodologies for more significant time and consumer-oriented project developments.
SCRUM method
Scrum is a slightly delicate version of the agile process. This method is mainly for a team of small size. This method needs a lot of self-discipline and self-management. At the start of the project, the team gathers and sorts out all the required features and demands of the software. Once, every person takes a particular part of the software and works on only that. By doing so, every feature of the project is under development at the same time.
If you want to use this method, the most crucial factor that will help you in successfully completing a project is daily team meetings. By sharing the updates and work process daily, it makes sure nothing is left unnoticed at the end of the project. Overall, this incorporates the traditional methods of developing with the modern that is the need for maximum efficiency and better results.
Extreme Programming
Extreme programming of XP follows a simple principle to track the progress of every project in the organization. It means there are a lot of reviews and feedbacks gone through and rectified. And, these actions happen before the next part of taking over the project. Once a particular segment of the software is perfect as per the consumer’s need. Then, the next steps are to put it into tests and then correct it.
Until the consumer is completely satisfied with the final result of that particular process, so we call it is completed project. By definition, this methodology is based entirely on customer’s needs and satisfaction and not based on time by any means. This methodology also makes every member of the team being involved in every process of the project. The complete attention of everyone in one process makes sure that the software at the end of the day is fault-free and needs no further rectification.
Conclusion
These are some of the most used methodologies in software development in recent days. Even though some of them quite old, they still have a lot of value and useful. You can be a large team or a small one. In a group with a lot of time or working under a tight schedule, there is always one or another methodology that will help you get through it. Hybrid methodologies can also be put into action. The hybrid methodology is the practice of using two or more methods in the same project depending on the project’s demands.
