In some software development projects the requirements supporting the business objectives are easily defined, while in other projects they are more difficult to determine at the start of the project. IT leaders should avoid a "one-size-fits-all" project development methodology and tailor their strategy to maximize project quality and efficiency.

Software Development Methodologies

Waterfall and Agile software development methodologies are conceptual frameworks for undertaking software engineering projects. They both follow Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) best practice concepts for software development projects describing each stage of development from feasibility to maintenance.

Waterfall Development

Waterfall development is an approach to software development that breaks a project into finite phases. Each phase is performed in order, and each depends on the completion of preceding phases.

The central idea behind the Waterfall model is that the time spent early on, making sure that requirements and design...