Software Development Life Cycle - Thesis Example

The numerous shortcomings associated with Waterfall methodologies, there was a need for the integration of waterfall and agile-a more adaptive and iterative model, which aims at improving output through rapid iteration-has been considered to have the possibility of helping an organization lower production costs; improve quality, and increase agility and adaptability. In this research, I have surveyed and looked at the use of integrated agile and waterfall methodologies in large financial services institutions.

This paper attempted to establish the linkages between Waterfall and Agile, examine the extent to which various departments within a large organization utilized either agile or waterfall, or a combination of both. A lot of literature is available out there focusing on either waterfall or agile methodologies separately or comparing them, but there is little literature on integrating agile with waterfall. This paper asserts that a set of agile practices can be seamlessly integrated into conventional Waterfall methodologies to enable software developers to improve their organizations’ ability to meeting customers changing requirements and enjoy important business benefits.

The foundation of any software system is its architecture. The software comprises different, separately developed components that interact and relate to each other. The architecture defines the structure of the software. If requirements include security, reliability, or ease of use, then the architecture tells programmers and users how the software will be built to achieve those goals.But the key to any architecture is the process followed for planning, analyzing, designing and implementing the system.

If no software development life cycle (SDLC) process is followed, the result will be a calamity. This chapter introduces the SDLC and lays the foundation for the rest of the study. It discusses the phases of an SDLC, and key differences between two widely used system development methodologies: waterfall and agile.