Introduction to software development methodologies

A series of activities aimed to help you grasp a range of traditional and non-traditional system development methodologies, and communicate your learning to your peers.

Research Activity 1: A grounding in tradition

Print (or save) the wikipedia article on the w:Waterfall model for software development Using a highlighter (or otherwise):

Identify the main features/important aspects of the waterfall methodology.
Who do you reckon the Waterfall method would appeal to? (End users, funding stakeholders, project managers, developers). Why?
Describe the main arguments for and against using a Waterfall methodology for a large project.

Find two other articles from what you consider to be reliable sources describing the Waterfall development process. You might like to choose one positive and one negative article. Use these articles to add to your responses to the above questions.

Finally, create either a brief report (1 page) or even better, a blog post, introducing the Waterfall methodology to a new student using your responses above. Make sure you include links to your sources, that you write your own thoughts, and that you address your target user audience (a new student who has not heard of development methodologies before). by milan

Research Activity 2: A new methodology

Print (or save) the wikipedia article on the w:Agile software development. Using a highlighter (or otherwise):

Describe how Agile development compares and contrasts to more traditional development processes (such as the Waterfall model).
Describe the main arguments for and against using a Agile software development design method such as Extreme Programing or one of the other methods for a large project.

Find two other articles from what you consider to be reliable sources describing Agile development. You might like to choose one positive and one negative article. Use these articles to add to your responses to the above questions.

Finally, create either a brief report (1 page) or even better, a blog post, introducing the Agile development to a new student using your responses above. Make sure you include links to your sources, that you write your own thoughts, and that you address your target user audience (a new student who has not heard of development methodologies before).

Scenarios for development methodologies

Using your knowledge of different development processes, ... TBD.