How to Choose the Best Software Development Models for Your Project

Does your company require custom software to be developed to step into the digital transformation unfolding through different industries? If that’s the case, you could soon be required to work with a variety of software development models. Getting to understand the types of models in software engineering will help in developing software that successfully meets every business requirement. With the constant innovation seen across the digital landscape, a plethora of software development models are being introduced to the market.

Each of those software development models is known to have different sets of benefits, disadvantages, and applications. Due to such huge competition between different software development models, the prices and product quality are also said to vary consequentially. That is why, in this article, we have decided to discuss the best software development models that can ideally suit your business model.

What is SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle)?

Before going through the list of top software development models, having a thorough understanding of the software development life cycle would be crucial. The software development life cycle is a streamlined process that aims to design, develop, and test reliable software. The primary aim behind the software development life cycle is to allow the creation of top-notch and maintainable software that easily meets user’s requirements. There are several stages of SDLC where the goal is to develop the required software at minimum cost while about all benefits.

Stages of Software Development Life Cycle

1. Planning and requirement analysis

One of the most important stages that must be followed before starting to develop your software would be devising a well-defined plan. Once you have completed planning the project in the initial stages, you should start looking into its requirement analysis.

For an efficient requirement analysis, you have to take into consideration the customer inputs and consumers’ sales purchase history. Remember, the data you collect through this project will be used as building blocks.

2. Explaining requirements

For stage 2, you are required to look at the requirements of the targeted software development project. To define those requirements, the customers, stakeholders, and market analysis would be playing a major role.

Within this step, software requirement specification is utilized as it keeps everything defined and attainable.

3. Laying the groundwork for architecture

Once you have understood the requirements of your software project, coming up with an excellent architecture would be of utmost importance. Remember you need to submit your designs within the design document specification.

By showing the initial planning made on architecture, market analysts and stakeholders would have the final say. They will choose the most logical design that ideally suits your business software.

4. Development of product

By the time you reach stage 4 of SDLC, the initial development of the product will accelerate. However, to start the development of software, developers are meant to use a specific programming language.

A variety of programming tools like compilers, interpreters, and debuggers are commonly used in this stage. Moreover, renowned programming languages like Python, Java, and C++ are also used to develop the software into reality.

5. Testing and integration

When the product has been successfully developed, the testing phase will take a major role. Even though minimal testing is conducted at every stage of SDLC, all the flaws and bugs are tracked and redesigned carefully. By completing this stage, you would be ensuring the smooth functioning of the software model.

6. Ensuring timely maintenance

After conducting repeated tests, the initial product starts getting released on the market by following selective phases. Once it gets deployed successfully, real tests are conducted adhering to industrial standards. If the organization finds the product performing successfully while fitting all the checkboxes.

Then, the company could choose to release the whole while getting feedback at the same time. Upon getting this feedback, certain improvements are made to ensure the software continues to perform as required.

Top software development models For Ensuring Business Growth

Until now, you might have properly understood the different stages involving the software development lifecycle model. Thus, it would mean you can now start exploring the finest list of software development models that can change the trajectory of your business.

1. Waterfall model

Whenever it comes to choosing software development models, the waterfall model is one of the highly chosen and established options. The waterfall model is known for adopting a linear methodology that comprises requirement analysis and proper maintenance.

This name was selected for this software model due to every phase coming after the other on a downward spiral. Therefore, without the conclusion of the previous stage, the next step cannot be initiated. The waterfall model could end up being an expensive investment if certain changes are required after the conclusion of the previous stages.

This is because developers have to go back to make those changes feasible. For software projects that are clearly defined for them, the waterfall model is considered to be ideal.

2. Iterative and Incremental model

For the second spot, we have decided to include an iterative and incremental model that adheres to custom software development solutions. Choosing this method of software development will divide each faction of your project into smaller parts or iterations.

When each of those iterations is completed, it will be tested to find any possible bugs. This software development model is considered hugely reliable for conducting quality tests throughout.

Therefore, coming onto the incremental phase, you would be getting a product that continues to grow sensibly. Nonetheless, following this software development model could cause some confusion regarding its timeline of iterations.

3. Spiral Model

If you are looking for an enhanced version of the iterative and incremental model, choosing the spiral software development model could be a reliable pick. The spiral model is said to follow the same strategy involving iterative and incremental models.

There is also the extra assurance of risk analysis that comfortably helps in the creation of improved software. Following this software development model, you begin with planning while going through thorough risk analysis, engineering, and careful evaluation.

Remember, the spiral development model is considered an ideal choice for complex projects due to them involving regular inspections.

4. V model

V model is famously duped as an extension to the Waterfall software development model. This is because it emphasizes the relationship between every development phase and the corresponding testing phase.

By choosing this software development model, you would be able to check each stage while conducting thorough tests. When opting for this software development model, quality control would be given utmost priority.

However, similar to the waterfall mode, the V model might not be able to adapt to the changes conducted after development. It would help if you had a clear and structured outlook about your project so that it could develop through the V model.

5. Agile Model

The agile model is considered a hugely popular software development model that works based on iterative development. The primary goal behind the development of software models through this method is to produce high-quality results at lower costs.

When the budget of an organization is tight, and the product needs to be developed in minimal time, the agile model is the reliable pick. One of the main reasons behind the use of the agile model is the code quality and the tests that can be conducted.

Even customer satisfaction levels reach greater heights through the continuous release of reliable software. Even the communication channels between client and software development teams are considerably streamlined.

6. Prototyping Model

From reading the name of this software development project model, you can probably guess its functionality. In choosing this method, small prototypes are created and tested thoroughly until they start to scale up into greater volumes.

By opting for this model, each segment of your project would be given equal importance while feedback is carefully taken into consideration. Based upon the feedback taken, the prototype would be continuously tested and modified, adhering to client requirements.

However, the developers of these models are not known to find a solution until the final prototype is produced. The risks that come with miscommunication can be greatly averted on this chosen software development project.

7. Joint Application development

Compared to other software development project models, which have been talked about until now, This method, called joint application development, is said to follow group dynamics while accurately determining business requirements for meeting customer demands.

Most importantly, the stakeholders, customers, subject matter experts, and software architects are required to give wings to its development. Moreover, the concept of partnership is given special importance when it comes to choosing to join application development.

Nonetheless, the technical team that has been allocated for this development should be well-versed in the requirements of this project. Additionally, the software development process should collectively align with business goals and targets.

8. Scrum

Scrum is yet another software development model that has gained a wide range of popularity in today’s market. Besides other software development models that have been discussed until now, Scrum has chosen to follow an adaptive approach.

Remember, the scrum software development model is an extension of the agile framework that collectively tries to improve the functionality of software development.

However, when choosing Scrum, you must carefully consider the use cases of the product owner, scrum master, and development team. Each of those three roles would play a major part in the effective development of the required software project.

9. DevOps

For example, if you are looking for a software development model that carefully integrates the role of operations and development teams, opting for DevOps would be an ideal pick.

Sometimes, DevOps is also termed the silver bullet of software development, which removes the hurdles between the efficient development of software models.

DevOps is known to enable overall transparency over the development process by streamlining coordination and communication channels. It is also known for facilitating careful integration while increasing overall visibility. Even the flexibility in software creation offered through DevOps is second to none. If the developers can choose the right set of tools and techniques, they could end up developing excellent software. When it comes to using DevOps, continuous improvement and constant automation make it a top choice among other software development models.

10. Lean software development

When it comes to lean software development models, the principle behind lean methodology is adopted for rapid creation. By choosing this software development model, you can minimize the overall time while optimizing performance.

The smaller category of software development projects is considered an ideal choice for this method. When software developers opt for this phenomenon, they are said to reduce unnecessary processes and defects on a greater note.

However, when using this software development project, organizations should have a greater grip on agile software development and related lean principles.

11. Adaptive software development

Compared to other software development models that have been talked about in this article. Adaptive software development is known for working based on continuous learning. With this factor in mind, the implementation of required measures becomes considerably easier.

When it comes to the development of software models, certain changes could be required for effective functioning. Nonetheless, those changes can be easily made as adaptive software development is known to follow a speculate, collaborate, and learn strategy.

12. Extreme programming model

Extreme programming models are also a part of agile development that coordinates teamwork and feedback to produce excellent software. Within this software development model, the practices are related to programming, a test-driven approach, and rapid integration.

Being an organization, if you are looking to improve your code quality while streamlining the communication channels. Choosing to rely upon the efficiency of an extreme programming model would be a hugely popular decision. For projects that require frequent changes to be conducted, picking an extreme programming model will be a great choice.

How can you choose the best software development process model?

There are so many options to choose from when it comes to the software development process model. It could get rather confusing regarding which software development model would ideally suit your project. Remember, not choosing the right software development model could end up doing more harm to your organization than improving its efficiency. Therefore, here are some points that you can follow to choose the best software development process.

1. Building out the requirements

One of the first factors that need to be considered before choosing a software development project is the project’s requirements. For instance, if you are obliged to work on a software project that requires constant changes, then choosing a prototyping software development model would be an ideal choice.

Meanwhile, if your project requires real-time monitoring, going with the agile methodology option would be a great decision.

2. Finding out the projected development downtime

Yet another crucial aspect that should be looked at when choosing a software development project is finding out the required development time. For example, taking into account how much time it will take before the project gets launched into the market is a crucial point to cover.

3. Selecting the project size and range of scope

Ideally, the project size matters a lot when it comes to selecting a software development model. If you already have a software project outlined with a streamlined definition, then choosing a waterfall software development model could be useful. Nonetheless, if you are looking for a consulting service for your software development project, going with Scrum could be an ideal choice.

4. Checking out the compliances

The risks associated with your software project development must be carefully looked at before choosing a model. When it comes to checking the risk assessment, choosing to go with the spiral model or the V model would be an excellent choice.

Even though both of them are known to function similarly in some ways, choosing between the two would depend upon your overall requirements.

5. Client involvement

Finally, client involvement and projection are also said to play a major role in the determination of your software development model. If your client is looking to take feedback at every stage of your software project, choosing to go with agile software development is an excellent choice.

Why should you understand software development models?

Understanding software development models is said to play a major role in the skill of choosing a software development project model. Not being able to understand the project efficiently could cost you huge sums of money in changing requirements.

Meanwhile, when you understand the software development models excellently, everything associated with them will be made simpler. Moreover, it helps you get a clear direction regarding where the software project could help you grow as an organization.

Conclusion

Hopefully, by reading this article, you will be able to understand the importance of different software development models. And how each of those has different characteristics required to help your business achieve greater heights. Even the software development life cycle stages are known to play a massive part in the overall selection of software development models.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s)

Which software development model is mostly used?

Agile is the most used software development model that continues to define industry standards while pertaining to major changes over some time. It also helps with excellent project management and maximum flexibility.

Which software model is measuredly better in terms of assessing risk?

The spiral model is considered to be the most preferred option when it comes to assessing risk while developing excellent software.

Which software development project is considered ideal for larger projects?

The incremental and Iterative model is considered to be the best suited for software projects that aim to develop medium or larger-sized projects.