Your complete guide to the top 7 software development methodologies

Are you a software company looking to cut costs, improve efficiency, and create better software products? Most likely yes, if we had to guess.

Well, the key to doing these things is to pick the right software development methodology.

In this post, we’ll define software development methodology and explain how the proper methodology can make a massive difference to your business.

Then, we’ll evaluate the top 7 methodologies that software companies are using today. By the end of this article, you’ll hopefully know which one will work best for your firm.

What is a software development methodology?

A software development methodology is a series of processes that define how the software development team successfully builds new software applications.

Essentially, they’re project management strategies applied specifically to software projects.

There will be several million more developers within the next few years, which could mean plenty of new software companies. New software companies mean more competition in terms of both products and talent.

You must pick a methodology that minimizes resource use without sacrificing quality or burning out your developers to retain the best talent and build superior software products.

Also, software development differs from other types of products in that it’s highly technical and intangible.

To illustrate, think of a construction project. It’s tangible — you can see the construction company slowly complete the building or bridge.

It’s a lot harder to visualize a completed software product, making it crucial to pick the right methodology.

Get started with monday.com

The 7 software development methodologies

There are a plethora of software development systems and methodologies out there — but many of them may not work too well for the majority of companies.

To that end, we’ve compiled this list of the top 7 software development methodologies that plenty of companies are using right this minute, along with the benefits and drawbacks of each one.

1. Waterfall

Created by computer scientist Dr. Winston W. Royce in 1970, Waterfall is perhaps the most traditional and widespread software development methodology.

The Waterfall approach is linear, consisting of several stages as shown in this chart:

You must complete each stage in order as you move down the chart, hence the Waterfall name.

Once you complete a stage of the software development process, you generally can’t go backward — at least not without a huge negative impact on your budget and/or schedule.  

Consequently, you may create distinct teams to work on the software development project at each stage.

Given the Waterfall model’s linearity, it’s pretty easy to construct a monday.com board with each of your software development stages.

Here’s a non-software example of a Waterfall board in monday.com:

Of course, you’d customize each of those stages to match the stages of Waterfall software development.

Pros of Waterfall

• Linearity and rigidity make projects easy to manage and keep track of under the Waterfall method.
• Each Waterfall stage typically has a fixed deadline, making scheduling easier and potentially saving time.

Cons of Waterfall

• Waterfall is pretty inflexible, making on-demand modifications tough.
• You can’t go backward. If you made a mistake in a previous stage, it’s not easy to go back and make any fixes.
• Software only functions correctly at the end, making it tough to gather customer feedback and ensure you meet the user’s requirements.

Overall, Waterfall can work great for simpler projects and/or those with requirements that you can easily define ahead of time.

2. Agile

Agile was invented by several developers who wanted to find a way to speed up software development. They laid out each core Agile principle and value in 2001 in a set of documents called the Agile Manifesto.

Agile isn’t exactly a methodology but more of a project management philosophy. In fact, some of the models discussed later fall under the Agile umbrella.

That said, Agile embraces an iterative approach and constant improvement over rigid processes and tools.

Here’s a visual representation of Agile development vs. following the Waterfall methodology:

(Image Source)

Given the emphasis on iteration, Agile development makes a lot of sense for software companies. They must always gather feedback and look for ways to hone the user experience.

Software firms are increasingly adopting an Agile methodology over others because of these needs.

Thinking about moving to an Agile approach? Already an Agile team? monday.com’s Agile Planning template makes it easy to jump right into Agile software development.

Pros of Agile

• Iterative approach and flexibility allow for better products that adapt to changing customer requirements.
• Easier to address and fix bugs as they come up, such as the monday.com Bugs Queue shown below.
• Better cooperation and collaboration among teams.

Cons of Agile

• The lack of rigid structure makes it challenging for unskilled developers.
• Heavy interaction between customers and the team is required, which can be time-consuming.
• Less documentation makes it harder to onboard new members and assign them responsibilities.

Agile can work well for staying flexible while ensuring larger and more complex projects meet changing customer needs.

3. Prototype

Under the Prototyping software development model, the dev team creates a working software prototype and nothing more to demonstrate to the user.

The design phase is quick in the Prototype model — but then the user plays with the prototype and offers the developer feedback.

The developer then makes the necessary changes and rinses and repeats until the customer is satisfied. Only then do they build and release the final product. Here’s a chart demonstrating this process:

(Image Source)

The goal is to solve the problems of the Waterfall model while maintaining development process rigidity. Thus, this isn’t as iterative as Agile, as you develop a full prototype first.

You can make this faster, though, by setting up a monday.com board for customer requests. Then, automate customer feedback gathering with some online forms.

Pros of Prototype

• Prototyping and demonstrating that prototype to the user lets you define the project scope better.
• Gathering customer feedback on the prototype allows for a better finished product.
• You can better identify and address project risks.

Cons of Prototype

• Customers may not like anything about the prototype, leaving you to scrap it and start from scratch.
• Customers may expect an earlier finished product delivery date than the company can handle.
• Early customer feedback can lead to excessive change requests that the team can’t accommodate.

Prototyping is a good approach for projects where the requirements aren’t as defined ahead of time, as long as the prototype itself isn’t far from what the customer wants.

Get started

4. Rapid Application Development

Rapid Application Development aims to create a prototype fast and with less cost than standard prototyping while maximizing customer feedback time.

Like any Agile framework, Rapid Application Development is an iterative model. However, those who follow this methodology develop an entire prototype right away that they iterate on instead of individual features.

(Image Source)

Pros of Rapid Application Development

• Fast prototyping allows for fast feedback and improvements on the overall product.
• Customer involvement and iterations lead to a higher rate of customer satisfaction.
• Helps save time, letting firms get started on other projects.

Cons of Rapid Application Development

• The high cost of modeling and automated code generation makes this unsuitable for small-budget projects.
• This only works when developing systems you can modularize.
• It’s more complex than many other models and generally requires highly skilled developers.

Rapid Application Development is best for projects with a sufficient budget and a tight deadline with teams that can adequately test each prototype.

5. Extreme Programming

Extreme Programming is a software development method aiming to create high-quality software products without sacrificing the development team’s quality of life and work environment.

It focuses heavily on improving the technical side of development while encouraging simplicity.

Some Extreme Programming practices include:

• Pair programming
• Test-first programming
• Continuous integration
• Incremental design

Pros of Extreme Programming

• Encourages collaboration and communication in various ways, such as pair programming.
• Heavily involves the user, leading to a better product.
• Focuses on improving work conditions — such as limiting work hours — and preventing developer burnout by optimizing efficiency.

Cons of Extreme Programming

• Some say it focuses excessively on code and insufficiently on software design.
• You risk scope creep due to a lack of detailed documentation.
• Mandatory practices like pair programming and continuous integration make this less flexible and harder to adopt.

Extreme Programming works best for small, adaptable teams that want to involve the customer and are fine with following the list of practices required.

6. Lean

Lean is an Agile framework aiming to cut waste and optimize the efficiency of the development process. The goal of Lean is to deliver projects in much less time and on a limited budget.

The Lean methodology also puts a relentless focus on providing value to the customer while cutting out anything else. The framework’s 5 values reflect this:

Part of implementing Lean is excellent resource management. You need to squeeze as many miles as possible out of each of your resources.

Using this monday.com Resource Management template makes that easy.

Pros of Lean

• Cutting waste accelerates development while minimizing costs, making it easier to pump out more great products.
• Fast delivery of a finished quality product boosts customer satisfaction.
• Knowledge bases speed up the learning process, once again leading to faster delivery.

Cons of Lean

• Lean development requires an experienced and disciplined team.
• You need sufficient and detailed documentation — too little creates scope creep risk or improper development, while too much wastes time.
• You can risk cutting things too lean, which can be disastrous for product quality and on-time delivery.

Lean can make firms competitive by keeping costs low while satisfying customers but generally works best for highly skilled and disciplined teams vigilant about maximizing resources.

7. Scrum

Scrum is an Agile model that puts further emphasis on communication between team members.

The Scrum methodology splits work into distinct periods of 1–4 weeks called sprints, during which teams work hard to finish deliverables outlined during the sprint plan.

There are several types of meetings vital to following Scrum, such as daily standup meetings. These meetings help keep people on track and find and remove roadblocks to completing the planned deliverables.

A Scrum Master coordinates and oversees the entire process.

One of the most vital components of Scrum is the sprint plan. Here, you outline the backlog of tasks you need to complete and how you’ll knock them out.

monday.com’s Sprint Planning template makes it easy to start planning and tracking your Scrum sprints right away. Here’s an example:

Pros of Scrum

• Regular meetings help management measure productivity and gather feedback from the team.
• Sprints break projects into defined, bite-sized pieces.
• Heavy collaboration can facilitate great ideas that lead to a better product.

Cons of Scrum

• Scope creep is possible, given the lack of a definite end date and changing requirements.
• The Scrum Master must be careful to avoid micromanagement while still ensuring things stay on track.
• Inexperienced developers may struggle with the self-management that Scrum requires.

Scrum can be a good methodology for smaller and faster-moving software projects, especially if the team has skilled and disciplined developers.

Manage software projects how you want with a Work OS

Although more software companies are picking up Agile frameworks, every development model has its pros and cons.

Ultimately, you have to understand your team culture and the types of projects you work on to pick the best one for your firm.

But regardless of methodology, a Work OS like monday.com offers all the tools and features you need to manage your software projects — not to mention non-dev matters — from start to finish and beyond.

See how monday.com can work with any development methodology with a 14-day free trial today.

Get started