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software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...
, a software development process is a process of dividing software development work into smaller, parallel, or sequential steps or sub-processes to improve
design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...
,
product management Product management is the business process of planning, developing, launching, and managing a product or service. It includes the entire lifecycle of a product, from ideation to development to go to market. Product managers are responsible for ...
. It is also known as a software development life cycle (SDLC). The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific
deliverable A deliverable is a tangible or intangible good or service produced as a result of a project that is intended to be delivered to a customer (either internal or external). A deliverable could be a report, a document, a software product, a server upgr ...
s and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application. Most modern development processes can be vaguely described as agile. Other methodologies include
waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...
,
prototyping A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...
,
iterative and incremental development Iterative and incremental development is any combination of both iterative design or iterative method and incremental build model for development. Usage of the term began in software development, with a long-standing combination of the two terms ...
, spiral development,
rapid application development Rapid application development (RAD), also called rapid application building (RAB), is both a general term for adaptive software development approaches, and the name for James Martin's method of rapid development. In general, RAD approaches to ...
, and
extreme programming Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. As a type of agile software development,"Human Centred Technology Workshop 2006 ", 2006, P ...
. A life-cycle "model" is sometimes considered a more general term for a category of methodologies and a software development "process" a more specific term to refer to a specific process chosen by a specific organization. For example, there are many specific software development processes that fit the spiral life-cycle model. The field is often considered a subset of the
systems development life cycle In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an informa ...
.


History

The software development methodology (also known as SDM) framework didn't emerge until the 1960s. According to Elliott (2004), the
systems development life cycle In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an informa ...
(SDLC) can be considered to be the oldest formalized methodology framework for building
information system An information system (IS) is a formal, sociotechnical, organizational system designed to collect, process, store, and distribute information. From a sociotechnical perspective, information systems are composed by four components: task, people ...
s. The main idea of the SDLC has been "to pursue the development of information systems in a very deliberate, structured and methodical way, requiring each stage of the life cycle––from the inception of the idea to delivery of the final system––to be carried out rigidly and sequentially"Geoffrey Elliott (2004) ''Global Business Information Technology: an integrated systems approach''. Pearson Education. p.87. within the context of the framework being applied. The main target of this methodology framework in the 1960s was "to develop large scale functional business systems in an age of large scale business conglomerates. Information systems activities revolved around heavy data processing and number crunching routines". Methodologies, processes, and frameworks range from specific prescriptive steps that can be used directly by an organization in day-to-day work, to flexible frameworks that an organization uses to generate a custom set of steps tailored to the needs of a specific project or group. In some cases, a "sponsor" or "maintenance" organization distributes an official set of documents that describe the process. Specific examples include: ; 1970s * Structured programming since 1969 * Cap Gemini SDM, originally from PANDATA, the first English translation was published in 1974. SDM stands for System Development Methodology ; 1980s *
Structured systems analysis and design method Structuring, also known as smurfing in banking jargon, is the practice of executing financial transactions such as making bank deposits in a specific pattern, calculated to avoid triggering financial institutions to file reports required by law ...
(SSADM) from 1980 onwards * Information Requirement Analysis/Soft systems methodology ; 1990s *
Object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of "objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...
(OOP) developed in the early 1960s and became a dominant programming approach during the mid-1990s *
Rapid application development Rapid application development (RAD), also called rapid application building (RAB), is both a general term for adaptive software development approaches, and the name for James Martin's method of rapid development. In general, RAD approaches to ...
(RAD), since 1991 *
Dynamic systems development method Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) is an agile project delivery framework, initially used as a software development method. First released in 1994, DSDM originally sought to provide some discipline to the rapid application development (R ...
(DSDM), since 1994 *
Scrum Scrum may refer to: Sport * Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league ** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union * Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi Media and popular culture * M ...
, since 1995 *
Team software process In combination with the personal software process (PSP), the team software process (TSP) provides a defined operational process framework that is designed to help teams of managers and engineers organize projects and produce software for products ...
, since 1998 *
Rational Unified Process The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an iterative software development process framework created by the Rational Software Corporation, a division of IBM since 2003. RUP is not a single concrete prescriptive process, but rather an adaptable proce ...
(RUP), maintained by IBM since 1998 *
Extreme programming Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. As a type of agile software development,"Human Centred Technology Workshop 2006 ", 2006, P ...
, since 1999 ; 2000s *
Agile Unified Process Agile Unified Process (AUP) is a simplified version of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) developed by Scott Ambler. It describes a simple, easy to understand approach to developing business application software using agile techniques and concepts ...
(AUP) maintained since 2005 by
Scott Ambler Scott W. Ambler (born 1966) is a Canadian software engineer, consultant and author. He is an author of books about the Disciplined Agile Delivery toolkit, the Unified process, Agile software development, the Unified Modeling Language, and Capabi ...
*
Disciplined agile delivery Disciplined agile delivery (DAD) is the software development portion of the Disciplined Agile Toolkit. DAD enables teams to make simplified process decisions around incremental and iterative solution delivery. DAD builds on the many practices esp ...
(DAD) Supersedes AUP 2010s * Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) * Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS) *
DevOps DevOps is a set of practices that combines software development (''Dev'') and IT operations (''Ops''). It aims to shorten the systems development life cycle and provide continuous delivery with high software quality. DevOps is complementary to ...
It is notable that since DSDM in 1994, all of the methodologies on the above list except RUP have been agile methodologies - yet many organizations, especially governments, still use pre-agile processes (often waterfall or similar). Software process and software quality are closely interrelated; some unexpected facets and effects have been observed in practice Among these, another software development process has been established in open source. The adoption of these best practices known and established processes within the confines of a company is called inner source.


Prototyping

Software prototyping Software prototyping is the activity of creating prototypes of software applications, i.e., incomplete versions of the software program being developed. It is an activity that can occur in software development and is comparable to prototyping ...
is about creating prototypes, i.e. incomplete versions of the software program being developed. The basic principles are: * Prototyping is not a standalone, complete development methodology, but rather an approach to try out particular features in the context of a full methodology (such as incremental, spiral, or rapid application development (RAD)). * Attempts to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process. * The client is involved throughout the development process, which increases the likelihood of client acceptance of the final implementation. * While some prototypes are developed with the expectation that they will be discarded, it is possible in some cases to evolve from prototype to working system. A basic understanding of the fundamental business problem is necessary to avoid solving the wrong problems, but this is true for all software methodologies.


Methodologies


Agile development

"Agile software development" refers to a group of software development frameworks based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve via collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the
Agile Manifesto In software development, agile (sometimes written Agile) practices include requirements discovery and solutions improvement through the collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams with their customer(s)/ end user(s), a ...
was formulated. Agile software development uses iterative development as a basis but advocates a lighter and more people-centric viewpoint than traditional approaches. Agile processes fundamentally incorporate iteration and the continuous feedback that it provides to successively refine and deliver a software system. The Agile model also includes the following software development processes: *
Dynamic systems development method Dynamic systems development method (DSDM) is an agile project delivery framework, initially used as a software development method. First released in 1994, DSDM originally sought to provide some discipline to the rapid application development (R ...
(DSDM) *
Kanban Kanban ( Japanese: カンバン and Chinese: 看板, meaning signboard or billboard) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing (also called just-in-time manufacturing, abbreviated JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, devel ...
*
Scrum Scrum may refer to: Sport * Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league ** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union * Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi Media and popular culture * M ...
* Crystal * Atern *
Lean software development Lean software development is a translation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, it is emerging with the support of a pro-lean subculture within the agil ...


Continuous integration

Continuous integration is the practice of merging all developer working copies to a shared mainline several times a day.
Grady Booch Grady Booch (born February 27, 1955) is an American software engineer, best known for developing the Unified Modeling Language (UML) with Ivar Jacobson and James Rumbaugh. He is recognized internationally for his innovative work in software archi ...
first named and proposed CI in his 1991 method, although he did not advocate integrating several times a day.
Extreme programming Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements. As a type of agile software development,"Human Centred Technology Workshop 2006 ", 2006, P ...
(XP) adopted the concept of CI and did advocate integrating more than once per day – perhaps as many as tens of times per day.


Incremental development

Various methods are acceptable for combining linear and iterative systems development methodologies, with the primary objective of each being to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process. There are three main variants of incremental development: # A series of mini-Waterfalls are performed, where all phases of the Waterfall are completed for a small part of a system, before proceeding to the next increment, or # Overall requirements are defined before proceeding to evolutionary, mini-Waterfall development of individual increments of a system, or # The initial software concept, requirements analysis, and design of architecture and system core are defined via Waterfall, followed by incremental implementation, which culminates in installing the final version, a working system.


Rapid application development

Rapid application development Rapid application development (RAD), also called rapid application building (RAB), is both a general term for adaptive software development approaches, and the name for James Martin's method of rapid development. In general, RAD approaches to ...
(RAD) is a software development methodology, which favors iterative development and the rapid construction of prototypes instead of large amounts of up-front planning. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself. The lack of extensive pre-planning generally allows software to be written much faster, and makes it easier to change requirements. The rapid development process starts with the development of preliminary
data model A data model is an abstract model that organizes elements of data and standardizes how they relate to one another and to the properties of real-world entities. For instance, a data model may specify that the data element representing a car be c ...
s and
business process model Business process modeling (BPM) in business process management and systems engineering is the activity of representing processes of an enterprise, so that the current business processes may be analyzed, improved, and automated. BPM is typically p ...
s using
structured technique Structured analysis and design technique (SADT) is a systems engineering and software engineering methodology for describing systems as a hierarchy of functions. SADT is a structured analysis modelling language, which uses two types of diagrams: ...
s. In the next stage, requirements are verified using prototyping, eventually to refine the data and process models. These stages are repeated iteratively; further development results in "a combined business requirements and technical design statement to be used for constructing new systems". The term was first used to describe a software development process introduced by James Martin in 1991. According to Whitten (2003), it is a merger of various structured techniques, especially data-driven
information technology engineering Data engineering refers to the building of systems to enable the collection and usage of data. This data is usually used to enable subsequent analysis and data science; which often involves machine learning. Making the data usable usually involves ...
, with prototyping techniques to accelerate software systems development.
Whitten, Jeffrey L. Jeffrey L. Whitten (born ) is an American computer scientist, and professor of information technology at Purdue University, known with Kevin C. Dittman and Lonnie D. Bentley as co-author of the textbook ''Systems Analysis and Design Methods'', whi ...
;
Lonnie D. Bentley Lonnie D. Bentley (born 1957) is an American computer scientist, and Professor and former Department Head of Computer and Information Technology at Purdue University, known with Kevin C. Dittman and Jeffrey L. Whitten as co-author of the textbook ...
, Kevin C. Dittman. (2003). ''Systems Analysis and Design Methods''. 6th edition. .
The basic principles of rapid application development are: * Key objective is for fast development and delivery of a high quality system at a relatively low investment cost. * Attempts to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process. * Aims to produce high quality systems quickly, primarily via iterative Prototyping (at any stage of development), active user involvement, and computerized development tools. These tools may include
Graphical User Interface The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
(GUI) builders,
Computer Aided Software Engineering Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is the domain of software tools used to design and implement applications. CASE tools are similar to and were partly inspired by Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools used for designing hardware products. CAS ...
(CASE) tools, Database Management Systems (DBMS),
fourth-generation programming language A fourth-generation programming language (4GL) is any computer programming language that belongs to a class of languages envisioned as an advancement upon third-generation programming languages (3GL). Each of the programming language generations a ...
s, code generators, and object-oriented techniques. * Key emphasis is on fulfilling the business need, while technological or engineering excellence is of lesser importance. * Project control involves prioritizing development and defining delivery deadlines or “timeboxes”. If the project starts to slip, emphasis is on reducing requirements to fit the timebox, not in increasing the deadline. * Generally includes
joint application design Joint application design (JAD) is a process used in the life cycle area of the dynamic systems development method (DSDM) to collect business requirements while developing new information systems for a company. "The JAD process also includes appro ...
(JAD), where users are intensely involved in system design, via consensus building in either structured workshops, or electronically facilitated interaction. * Active user involvement is imperative. * Iteratively produces production software, as opposed to a throwaway prototype. * Produces documentation necessary to facilitate future development and maintenance. * Standard systems analysis and design methods can be fitted into this framework.


Waterfall development

The waterfall model is a sequential development approach, in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through several phases, typically: *
Requirements analysis In systems engineering and software engineering, requirements analysis focuses on the tasks that determine the needs or conditions to meet the new or altered product or project, taking account of the possibly conflicting requirements of the ...
resulting in a software requirements specification * Software design *
Implementation Implementation is the realization of an application, or execution of a plan, idea, model, design, specification, standard, algorithm, or policy. Industry-specific definitions Computer science In computer science, an implementation is a real ...
* Testing * Integration, if there are multiple subsystems *
Deployment Deployment may refer to: Engineering and software Concepts * Blue-green deployment, a method of installing changes to a web, app, or database server by swapping alternating production and staging servers * Continuous deployment, a software e ...
(or
Installation Installation may refer to: * Installation (computer programs) * Installation, work of installation art * Installation, military base * Installation, into an office, especially a religious (Installation (Christianity) Installation is a Christian li ...
) *
Maintenance Maintenance may refer to: Biological science * Maintenance of an organism * Maintenance respiration Non-technical maintenance * Alimony, also called ''maintenance'' in British English * Champerty and maintenance, two related legal doct ...
The first formal description of the method is often cited as an article published by
Winston W. Royce Winston Walker Royce (August 15, 1929 – June 7, 1995) was an American computer scientist, director at Lockheed Software Technology Center in Austin, Texas. He was a pioneer in the field of software development,
in 1970, although Royce did not use the term "waterfall" in this article. Royce presented this model as an example of a flawed, non-working model. The basic principles are: * The Project is divided into sequential phases, with some overlap and splash back acceptable between phases. * Emphasis is on planning, time schedules, target dates, budgets, and implementation of an entire system at one time. * Tight control is maintained over the life of the project via extensive written documentation, formal reviews, and approval/signoff by the user and
information technology management Information technology management or IT management is the discipline whereby all of the information technology resources of a firm are managed in accordance with its needs and priorities. Managing the responsibility within a company entails many o ...
occurring at the end of most phases before beginning the next phase. Written documentation is an explicit deliverable of each phase. The waterfall model is a traditional engineering approach applied to software engineering. A strict waterfall approach discourages revisiting and revising any prior phase once it is complete. This "inflexibility" in a pure waterfall model has been a source of criticism by supporters of other more "flexible" models. It has been widely blamed for several large-scale government projects running over budget, over time and sometimes failing to deliver on requirements due to the
Big Design Up Front Big Design Up Front (BDUF) is a software development approach in which the program's design is to be completed and perfected before that program's implementation is started. It is often associated with the waterfall model of software development. ...
approach. Except when contractually required, the waterfall model has been largely superseded by more flexible and versatile methodologies developed specifically for software development. See Criticism of Waterfall model.


Spiral development

In 1988,
Barry Boehm Barry William Boehm (May 16, 1935 – August 20, 2022) was an American software engineer, distinguished professor of computer science, industrial and systems engineering; the TRW Professor of Software Engineering; and founding director of the Cen ...
published a formal software system development "spiral model," which combines some key aspects of the
waterfall model The waterfall model is a breakdown of project activities into linear sequential phases, meaning they are passed down onto each other, where each phase depends on the deliverables of the previous one and corresponds to a specialization of tasks. ...
and rapid prototyping methodologies, in an effort to combine advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts. It provided emphasis in a key area many felt had been neglected by other methodologies: deliberate iterative risk analysis, particularly suited to large-scale complex systems. The basic principles are: * Focus is on risk assessment and on minimizing project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process, as well as providing the opportunity to evaluate risks and weigh consideration of project continuation throughout the life cycle. * "Each cycle involves a progression through the same sequence of steps, for each part of the product and for each of its levels of elaboration, from an overall concept-of-operation document down to the coding of each individual program."
Barry Boehm Barry William Boehm (May 16, 1935 – August 20, 2022) was an American software engineer, distinguished professor of computer science, industrial and systems engineering; the TRW Professor of Software Engineering; and founding director of the Cen ...
(1996).
"A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement
. In: ''ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes'' (ACM) 11(4):14-24, August 1986
* Each trip around the spiral traverses four basic quadrants: (1) determine objectives, alternatives, and constraints of the iteration, and (2) evaluate alternatives; Identify and resolve risks; (3) develop and verify deliverables from the iteration; and (4) plan the next iteration.Richard H. Thayer, Barry W. Boehm (1986). ''Tutorial: software engineering project management''. Computer Society Press of the IEEE. p.130 * Begin each cycle with an identification of stakeholders and their "win conditions", and end each cycle with review and commitment.


Shape Up

Shape Up is a software development approach introduced by
Basecamp Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...
in 2018. It is a set of principles and techniques that Basecamp developed internally to overcome the problem of projects dragging on with no clear end. Its primary target audience is remote teams. Shape Up has no estimation and velocity tracking, backlogs, or sprints, unlike
Waterfall A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in severa ...
, Agile, or
Scrum Scrum may refer to: Sport * Scrum (rugby), a method of restarting play in rugby union and rugby league ** Scrum (rugby union), scrum in rugby union * Scrum, an offensive melee formation in Japanese game Bo-taoshi Media and popular culture * M ...
. Instead, those concepts are replaced with appetite, betting, and cycles. As of 2022, besides Basecamp, notable organizations that have adopted Shape Up include UserVoice and Block.


Cycles

Through trials and errors, Basecamp found that the ideal cycle length is 6 weeks. This 6 week period is long enough to build a meaningful feature and still short enough to induce a sense of urgency.


Shaping

Shaping is the process of preparing work before being handed over to
designers A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...
and
engineers Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the ...
. Shaped work spells out the solution's main UI elements, identifies rabbit holes, and outlines clear scope boundaries. It is meant to be rough and to leave finer details for builders (designers and engineers) to solve, allowing the builders to exercise their creativity and make trade-offs. Shaped work is documented in the form of a pitch using an online document solution that supports commenting, allowing team members to contribute technical information asynchronously. Such comments are crucial for uncovering hidden surprises that may derail the project. Before a cycle begins, stakeholders hold a betting table, where pitches are reviewed. For each pitch, a decision is made to either bet on it or drop it.


Appetite

The way Shape Up determines how much time is allocated to a project is diametrically opposed to other methodologies. Shape Up starts with an appetite (for example, 6 weeks) and ends with a solution design that can be delivered within this constraint. The appetite becomes a hard deadline for the project's builders.


Building

Shape Up is a two-track system where shapers and builders work in parallel. Work that is being shaped in the current cycle may be given to designers and engineers to build in a future cycle. Recognizing the technical uncertainties that come with building, progress is tracked using a chart that visualizes the metaphor of the hill, aptly named the hill chart. The uphill phase is where builders are still working out their approach, while the downhill is where unknowns have been eliminated. Builders proactively and asynchronously self-report progress using an interactive online hill chart on Basecamp or Jira, shifting focus from done or not-done statuses to unknown or solved problems. The use of hill chart replaces the process of reporting linear statuses in scrum or
Kanban Kanban ( Japanese: カンバン and Chinese: 看板, meaning signboard or billboard) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing (also called just-in-time manufacturing, abbreviated JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, devel ...
standup.


Advanced methodologies

Other high-level software project methodologies include: * Behavior-driven development and business process management * Chaos model - The main rule always resolve the most important issue first. *
Incremental funding methodology The Incremental Funding Methodology (IFM) is an ROI-informed approach to software development in which software is developed and delivered in carefully prioritized chunks of customer valued functionality. These chunks are known as Minimum Marketabl ...
- an iterative approach *
Lightweight methodology A lightweight methodology is a software development method that has only a few rules and practices, or only ones that are easy to follow. In contrast, a complex method with many rules is considered a " heavyweight methodology". Examples of light ...
- a general term for methods that only have a few rules and practices *
Structured systems analysis and design method Structuring, also known as smurfing in banking jargon, is the practice of executing financial transactions such as making bank deposits in a specific pattern, calculated to avoid triggering financial institutions to file reports required by law ...
- a specific version of waterfall * Slow programming, as part of the larger Slow Movement, emphasizes careful and gradual work without (or minimal) time pressures. Slow programming aims to avoid bugs and overly quick release schedules. * V-Model (software development) - an extension of the waterfall model *
Unified Process The Unified Software Development Process or Unified Process is an iterative and incremental software development process framework. The best-known and extensively documented refinement of the Unified Process is the Rational Unified Process (R ...
(UP) is an iterative software development methodology framework, based on
Unified Modeling Language The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system. The creation of UML was originally m ...
(UML). UP organizes the development of software into four phases, each consisting of one or more executable iterations of the software at that stage of development: inception, elaboration, construction, and guidelines. Many tools and products exist to facilitate UP implementation. One of the more popular versions of UP is the
Rational Unified Process The Rational Unified Process (RUP) is an iterative software development process framework created by the Rational Software Corporation, a division of IBM since 2003. RUP is not a single concrete prescriptive process, but rather an adaptable proce ...
(RUP). *Big Bang methodology - an approach for small or undefined projects, generally consisting of little to no planning with high risk.


Process meta-models

Some "
process model The term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the ''business process model''. Overview Process models are processes of the same nature that a ...
s" are abstract descriptions for evaluating, comparing, and improving the specific process adopted by an organization. *
ISO/IEC 12207 ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 ''Systems and software engineering – Software life cycle processes'' is an international standard for software lifecycle processes. First introduced in 1995, it aims to be a primary standard that defines all the processes requ ...
is the international standard describing the method to select, implement, and monitor the life cycle for software. * The
Capability Maturity Model Integration Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is a process level improvement training and appraisal program. Administered by the CMMI Institute, a subsidiary of ISACA, it was developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). It is required by many ...
(CMMI) is one of the leading models and is based on best practices. Independent assessments grade organizations on how well they follow their defined processes, not on the quality of those processes or the software produced. CMMI has replaced CMM. *
ISO 9000 The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...
describes standards for a formally organized process to manufacture a product and the methods of managing and monitoring progress. Although the standard was originally created for the manufacturing sector, ISO 9000 standards have been applied to software development as well. Like CMMI, certification with ISO 9000 does not guarantee the quality of the end result, only that formalized business processes have been followed. *
ISO/IEC 15504 ISO/IEC 15504 ''Information technology – Process assessment'', also termed Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE), is a set of technical standards documents for the computer software development process and related bu ...
''Information technology—Process assessment is'' also known as Software Process Improvement Capability Determination (SPICE), is a "framework for the assessment of software processes". This standard is aimed at setting out a clear model for process comparison. SPICE is used much like CMMI. It models processes to manage, control, guide and monitors software development. This model is then used to measure what a development organization or project team actually does during software development. This information is analyzed to identify weaknesses and drive improvement. It also identifies strengths that can be continued or integrated into common practice for that organization or team. *
ISO/IEC 24744 ISO/IEC 24744 ''Software Engineering — Metamodel for Development Methodologies'' is an ISO/ IEC standard for software engineering metamodelling for development methodologies. It defines a metamodel from which development methodologies (so ...
''Software Engineering—Metamodel for Development Methodologies'', is a power type-based metamodel for software development methodologies. * SPEM 2.0 by the Object Management Group *
Soft systems methodology Soft systems methodology (SSM) is an organised way of thinking and it can be used to tackle general problematic situations that arise in the real world and in the management of change by using action. Developed in England by academics at the Lancast ...
- a general method for improving management processes *
Method engineering Method engineering in the "field of information systems is the discipline to construct new methods from existing methods".F. Harmsen & M. Saeki (1996). "Comparison of four method engineering languages". In: Sjaak Brinkkemper et al. (eds.) '' ...
- a general method for improving information system processes


In practice

A variety of such frameworks have evolved over the years, each with its own recognized strengths and weaknesses. One software development methodology framework is not necessarily suitable for use by all projects. Each of the available methodology frameworks is best suited to specific kinds of projects, based on various technical, organizational, project, and team considerations.Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Office of Information Service (2008).
Selecting a development approach
'. Webarticle. United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Re-validated: March 27, 2008. Retrieved 27 Oct 2008.
Software development organizations implement process methodologies to ease the process of development. Sometimes, contractors may require methodologies employed, an example is the U.S.
defense industry The arms industry, also known as the arms trade, is a global industry which manufactures and sells weapons and military technology. It consists of a commercial industry involved in the research and development, engineering, production, and s ...
, which requires a rating based on
process model The term process model is used in various contexts. For example, in business process modeling the enterprise process model is often referred to as the ''business process model''. Overview Process models are processes of the same nature that a ...
s to obtain contracts. The international standard for describing the method of selecting, implementing, and monitoring the life cycle for software is
ISO/IEC 12207 ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 ''Systems and software engineering – Software life cycle processes'' is an international standard for software lifecycle processes. First introduced in 1995, it aims to be a primary standard that defines all the processes requ ...
. A decades-long goal has been to find repeatable, predictable processes that improve productivity and quality. Some try to systematize or formalize the seemingly unruly task of designing software. Others apply
project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
techniques to designing software. Large numbers of software projects do not meet their expectations in terms of functionality, cost, or delivery schedule - see List of failed and overbudget custom software projects for some notable examples. Organizations may create a
Software Engineering Process Group A Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) is an organization's focal point for software process improvement activities. These individuals perform assessments of organizational capability, develop plans to implement needed improvements, coordinat ...
(SEPG), which is the focal point for process improvement. Composed of line practitioners who have varied skills, the group is at the center of the collaborative effort of everyone in the organization who is involved with software engineering process improvement. A particular development team may also agree to program environment details, such as which
integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools ...
is used one or more dominant
programming paradigm Programming paradigms are a way to classify programming languages based on their features. Languages can be classified into multiple paradigms. Some paradigms are concerned mainly with implications for the execution model of the language, suc ...
s,
programming style Programming style, also known as code style, is a set of rules or guidelines used when writing the source code for a computer program. It is often claimed that following a particular programming style will help programmers read and understand sour ...
rules, or choice of specific
software libraries In computer science, a library is a collection of non-volatile resources used by computer programs, often for software development. These may include configuration data, documentation, help data, message templates, pre-written code and subro ...
or software frameworks. These details are generally not dictated by the choice of model or general methodology.


See also

*
Systems development life cycle In systems engineering, information systems and software engineering, the systems development life cycle (SDLC), also referred to as the application development life cycle, is a process for planning, creating, testing, and deploying an informa ...
*
Computer-aided software engineering Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) is the domain of software tools used to design and implement applications. CASE tools are similar to and were partly inspired by Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools used for designing hardware products. CAS ...
(some of these tools support specific methodologies) *
List of software development philosophies This is a list of approaches, styles, methodologies, philosophies in software development and engineering. It also contains programming paradigms, software development methodologies, software development processes, and single practices, principl ...
* Outline of software engineering *
OpenUP The Open Unified Process (OpenUP) is a part of the Eclipse Process Framework (EPF), an open source process framework developed within the Eclipse Foundation. Its goals are to make it easy to adopt the core of the Rational Unified Process (RUP) / U ...
*
Project management Project management is the process of leading the work of a team to achieve all project goals within the given constraints. This information is usually described in project documentation, created at the beginning of the development process. T ...
* Software development *
Software development effort estimation In software development, effort estimation is the process of predicting the most realistic amount of effort (expressed in terms of person-hours or money) required to develop or maintain software based on incomplete, uncertain and noisy input. Effort ...
*
Software release life cycle A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of development and maturity for a piece of computer software ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help impro ...
* Top-down and bottom-up design#Computer science


References


External links


Selecting a development approach
at cms.hhs.gov. * Gerhard Fischer
"The Software Technology of the 21st Century: From Software Reuse to Collaborative Software Design"
2001
Subway map of agile practices at Agile Alliance
{{DEFAULTSORT:Software Development Methodology Methodology Software engineering