Agile vs. Waterfall: Choosing the Right Software Development Methodology

Let’s look deeper at some of the benefits and drawbacks of each method.

Agile:

Benefits of Agile:

• Agile is a client forward process, so the product owner or client is involved during every step of the product development cycle.
• Agile teams are well organized and motivated which helps to improve the final results and ease of future development work.
• The overall quality of the development is continuously tracked.
• The process focuses on making smaller steps to reach the end goal, meaning you will know what has been done and what hasn’t.
• It is incremental and helps to reduce the risk.

Drawbacks of Agile:

• Agile isn’t well suited for small projects.
• The product owner or project manager needs to be involved in nearly all meetings to make decisions.
• The cost is typically more than other methods.
• If the project manager is not clear when delegating and specifying what changes he/she wants, the project can derail itself at times.

General Process Outline:

1. Initial requirements
2. Design
3. Develop
4. Test
5. Deploy
6. Verify sprint results
7. Request feedback
8. Determine new requirements for the next sprint based on feedback & repeat until you achieve the final desired product.

Types of Agile:

Scrum:

Topping off the agile subcategories is the most used project management practice, namely Scrum. Scrum centralizes on a team and product owner, the project manager. The project manager is going to create a backlog and organize sprints to ensure that features and functions are being completed on time and are tested. As the product owner sees fit or as the priorities shift, the team will follow suit. Most teams practicing the agile methodology will be following the Scrum subset.

Agile Portfolio Management:

Agile Portfolio Management is a methodology that combines Agile techniques and portfolio management practices. Portfolios are becoming more challenging to manage, so using Agile methodologies, project managers and separate projects into individual requirements and smaller pieces. When the project is more bite-sized, this allows for better adaptability and flexibility for new features additions and modifications.

Kanban:

Kanban is a popular methodology within the Agile grouping. Originally used for assembly line style workflows in Japan, Kanban is workflow method relying on visual ques and “cards” that is successful among Lean practitioners.

Waterfall:

Benefits of Waterfall:

• Waterfall is a very straightforward model because each phase has specific deliverables and a review process.
• Waterfall is generally better for smaller and precise projects.
• Waterfall can be very well-documented and fast.

Drawbacks of Waterfall:

• With Waterfall, it is quite difficult to makes changes to previously done work.
• Larger sized projects aren’t a great fit for Waterfall.
• If the requirements aren’t concise from the start, Waterfall is a less effective method.
• Testing comes after development is complete, meaning that any bugs found are going to be expensive to fix.

General Process Outline:

1. Gather and document all requirements upfront
2. Design
3. Development
4. Testing
5. Deployment/Delivery

Types of Waterfall: 

Being as there are no distinctive subsets of the Waterfall method, we have opted to highlight some similar options. Some Agile alternatives that take a waterfall-like approach that we can explore are Rapid and Spiral methods. Rapid more focuses on starting the project and not overly complicating the pre-planning process, meaning you develop and make changes when the feedback is provided. Spiral is a combination of this rapid method, coupled with waterfall stages and steps. It comes out to be much like an agile cycle but centralizes the idea that some feedback and iterations are done before the bulk of development. From this, you get the operational prototype and move towards the typical development process. It gets to be a little convoluted though, as it is walking the line between “top-down” and “bottom-up” methodologies.

Conclusion

To take a step back and evaluate. Agile teams focus more on projects that need to be adapted and modified mid-development, often to meet the needs of the users or to include newer technologies and trends. Waterfall can be used by focused teams looking to complete smaller projects that have a clear end goal. In the software development space, specifically in mobile development, you will find teams practicing the agile methodology. In more rigidized enterprise environments with set budgets and timelines, that software may be developed using waterfall techniques. It all comes down to preference and the team’s ability. Some smaller teams feel more comfortable with set in stone requirements and other teams like to have the flexibility to change things as they see fit.