One of the most challenging questions in project management is “What way of organizing the work of software development to choose?”. This is about development methodologies.
Agile and Waterfall are two very different ways of delivering projects.
First, we will describe them both and then compare their respective advantages and limitations.
What is Agile methodology?
Agile software development refers to software development methodologies centered around the idea of iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.
What is Waterfall methodology?
Waterfall is a linear approach to software development. In this methodology, the sequence of events is something like:
1. Gather and document requirements
2. Design
3. Code and unit test
4. Perform system testing
5. Perform user acceptance testing
6. Fix any issues
7. Deliver the finished product
Advantages of Waterfall methodology:
- Simple and easy to understand and use.
- It is easy to manage due to the rigidity of the model — each phase has specific deliverables and a review process.
- In this model, phases are processed and completed one at a time.
- This methodology works well for smaller projects where requirements are clearly defined and very well understood.
Limitations of Waterfall Methodology:
- It is not an ideal model for a large size project.
- Very difficult to move back to makes changes in the previous phases.
- The testing process starts once development is over. Hence, it has a high chance of bugs to be found later in development where they are expensive to fix.
Advantages of Agile methodology:
- Agile methods have excellent safeguards to make sure that quality is as high as possible
- The incremental nature of the agile method means that projects are completed in shorter sprints, making them more manageable
- Close collaboration between the project team and the customer provides immediate feedback. The customer is able to make tweaks to their expectations and desires throughout the process. The result: a more satisfied customer.
- Being part of a self-managing team allows people to be creative, innovative, and acknowledged for their expertise.
Limitations of Agile methodology:
- It isn’t a useful method for small development projects.
- It requires an expert to take important decisions in the meeting.
- The cost of implementing an agile method is a little more compared to other development methodologies.
- The project can easily go off track if the project manager is not clear what outcome he/she wants.
In conclusion…
Agile and Waterfall are very different software development methodologies and are good in their own way. However, there are certain major differences that need to be taken into consideration before choosing one:
- Waterfall is ideal for projects which have defined requirements, and no changes are expected.
- Agile is best suited where there is a higher chance of frequent requirement changes.
- The waterfall is easy to manage, sequential, and rigid method.
- Agile is very flexible and it possible to make changes in any phase.
- In a waterfall methodology, it is defined only once by the business analyst.
- In Agile methodology, requirements can change frequently.
- In Agile, details can be altered anytime during the SDLC process which is not possible in Waterfall methodology.
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