Mark DiCoccoDirector of Operations| Fidelity Technologies Inc.Reading, Pa, United States
I am interested in your experience with various software development methodologies (i.e.: waterfall, spiral, chaos, etc...). Which did you find most effective and for what type of development programs? Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
I have been involved in software development both in commercial products and government contracts and I would rank methodologies as follows, from best to worst: agile, chaos(ad-hoc), waterfall.
In my early commercial work, there was never a concept of a "project", i.e., fixed scope and delivery. Requirements were very general, often a verbal couple fo sentences. Changes in direction were not uncommon, but not highly frequent. Deliveries were often done on an "as-needed" basis, e.g., driven by a customer demo, an error report, or a trade show. Success was largely determined by a few top-level developers and nothing was done to help the average developer move up.
In my government work, tasks were performed in a waterfall, gated approach (RADIT - Requirements, Analysis, Design, Integeration, Test). These were driven by documents often containing hundreds of requirements (typically a 1 year effort for a 10 man team) and Gantt charts with hundreds of lines. Unfortunately, this approach did not adequately address risk, which is a major aspect of software development. The bid process tends to discount risk as bidders develop their best costs using optimistic (though carefully documented) assumptions.
Agile development ( I have used a combination of Scrum and XP/Extreme Programming practices) seems to provide the best middle ground between ad-hoc and waterfall approaches. It provides more planning and predictability than ad-hoc and also addresses risk in a more effective manner than waterfall.
I have become a strong proponent of agile methods and feels it provides the best product to the field. It can be challenged, however, in providing the standard, intermediate deliverables often valued in a waterfall approach.
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