Development life cycle models – waterfall vs agile

The Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a structure followed by a development team within the software organization. It consists of a detailed plan describing how to develop, maintain, and replace specific software. There are two main models that are adopted. One is the traditional method, which is called waterfall, and the more dynamic method is called agile.

Waterfall

The waterfall model is the traditional method used in the SDLC as it has a linear and sequential pattern to it. The development of the software moves from the top to the bottom, with each phase needing to be completed before the next phase can begin:

Figure 5: Waterfall model

It starts with gathering information about the requirement, then it is put into the design phase, and then it is implemented. The testing phase is carried out before it goes into production; any testing carried out will be rolled back prior to deployment. The maintenance phase is for patching and fixing...