Project Management

[ Project Management Topics ]

System Development Life Cycles

Now that we know what we are creating (Scope) and the basics of how we intend to create it (Work Breakdown Structure) we need to take some time to think about how we see the development process actually occuring. Now usually we do something akin to

  1. Define Problem;
  2. Analyze Solution;
  3. Design Solution;
  4. Implement Design;
  5. Support Product

However, there are a number of ways we could handle the builidng of a project as you will see below. Based on your company, your project, your personality, and your team's personality, some will work better than others.

Waterfall

Model

Learn more: http://www.startvbdotnet.com/sdlc/sdlc.aspx

Fountain (or Iterative or Incremental)

Model

Learn more:

Spiral

The spiral methodology extends the waterfall model by introducing prototyping. It is generally chosen over the waterfall approach for large, expensive, and complicated projects.

Learn more: http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/methodologies/spiral.asp or http://www.designingprojectmanagement.com/SoftwareProcessModels.html

Build and fix

Self explanitory....

Rapid prototyping or Rapid Application Development

Prototype and re-use. Strong use of versions.

Model

Learn more: http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid92_gci214246,00.html or http://www.usdoj.gov/jmd/irm/lifecycle/ch13.htm#para13.3.2

Synchronize and stabilize

Groups work in parrallel on iterative versions and then synch up results before moving to next phase

Learn more: http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci922408,00.html

V-model

Model

Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-Model_%28software_development%29