Differences between Traditional and Agile Software Development Methodologies

The key to a good software development is to provide satisfying respond to the customer demands. However, the responds provided depend on the software development methodology applied by the company which is either traditional software development methodologies or Agile software development methodologies. What are the differences between the two methodologies?

Firstly, the traditional software development methodologies use predictive approach. The software development methodologies are fully specifiable and predictable as the product is built through meticulous and specific planning. In this approach, changes are not allowed as the time and cost in the development of the project is fixed. While, Agile software development methodologies use adaptive approach. The software development methodologies are based on the principle of continuous design improvement and testing based on the feedback of the team and customers.

In term of the communication between the company and customers, the traditional software development methodologies are formal while the Agile software development methodologies are informal. In other words, the customer involvement with the company that uses Agile software development methodologies are more frequent than that of traditional software development methodologies.

Next, the traditional software development methodologies are more suitable for a less complex project. Since the approach of the methodology is linear, sudden changes to the project will interrupt the whole development process. This causes the team to be required to redevelop the entire software again. On the contrary, Agile software development methodologies are preferable in complex project. The changes does not affect the product development since frequent testing is done in Agile methodology through iteration release. This frequent testing gives flexibility to the team to improve their product without the need to start the development process all over again.

In conclusion, the Agile software development methodologies have more advantages over the traditional software development methodologies as it is more focused on meeting customers demands.

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