I am happy with the merit and demerits of the waterfall, spiral, v, b and reverse engineering life cycle models BUT what are the alternative life cycle models? are we now talking about structured models like RAD? Saving Changes...
Michael WoodProject Manager / Business Analyst / Business Process Improvement Guru| Independent ContractorGig Harbor, Wa, United States
Interesting question. Throughout the 80's and 90's I made a successful living providing services built around an formal SDLC methodology. In 2000 I ran an Internet development project that made me question the need for much of the components of traditional SDLC's. The tool sets for development were so fast and rich that I found little risk in collapsing requirments and design into a single phase. However to do this I needed to perfect ways to map processes and identify business improvement opportunities that resulted in a conceptual design document that provide a normalized data model, supporting dictionaries, description of every work process and related technology needs. I would not call it RAD but it is an accelerated approach that yields impressive organizational results. So I guess I am saying that the SDLC can be shortened while reducing risk by putting more emphasis on mapping the business and less time building specifications that do not contribute to the construction of the end product. Hope this makes some sense. Saving Changes...
