
Agile looks best where there is a higher chance of frequent requirement changes. Waterfall suits projects with well-defined requirements where no changes are expected. To summarize this post, let’s define core differences and highlight them here:
Comparing agile vs waterfall project management course software#
ConclusionĪgile and Waterfall software development methodologies are rather different and good in their respective way. The main difference between Agile and Waterfall methodology is that the Agile approach to software development has no strict structure.

The clients know exactly what is complete and what is not that decreases risks in the development process. This provides better results for development projects. Agile teams are extremely and self-organized and motivated. The Agile offshore development process is completely based on incremental progress. It guarantees that the quality of the development is clearly maintained. It makes sure that the client is continuously involved in every stage. The methodology is focused on the client process. The cost of implementing Agile is a little more compared to other methodologies. Agile projects can easily go off track if project managers are not sure what outcome they want. Agile meetings require the presence of an expert to take important decisions. Agile is not useful for small development projects. Agile allows more communication between developers, managers, testers, and customers. In this methodology, development and testing activities are concurrent (unlike in Waterfall). The Agile model provides continuous iteration of development and testing in the software development process.


Rather beneficial to manage dependencies. The well-documented processes and results. The method works well for smaller size projects (with easily understandable requirements). Because of its nature, each Waterfall’s phase has specific deliverables and a review process. While using this approach to software development the work can be conducted more carefully and completely. However, the Waterfall method has also some advantages. The fixing of failures at this stage of work will require lots of extra costs. After the project is finished, the customer can be disappointed with its results, because all the work on a project was based on the initial documentation and the result may not meet the customer’s expectations. Waterfall disadvantagesĪs you can guess, such an approach has lots of disadvantages. Delivering the finished product to the customer. After that, the system and user acceptance are tested.ħ. The main task of this stage is to test codes and unites.ĥ. At this stage, the developers try to find a suitable form to meet all the customer’s requirements.Ĥ. The customer is involved in the project performance only at the first and the last stage.ģ. During the next stages of work, all the actions will be conducted based on this documentation. The sequence of events according to this method looks that:ġ. It is usually used by companies with a hierarchical structure. The traditional method is based on strict planning and performing the plan step by step. Waterfall means a linear approach to development. The selection of a certain methodology depends on the particular project and the company that performs it. What is the difference between Waterfall and Agile?īoth of these are usable and mature. This specific type of Rapid Application Development is newer than Waterfall (it originated in the 2000s) and it is typically implemented with Scrum or Kanban.

It can be also called the traditional method of software development. There are two basic and most popular methods of managing projects in the modern software development industry: This topic gets a lot of discussions and hot debates as every software development project start with the selection of implementation methods. One of the most challenging and eternal questions in project management is “What way of organizing the work of software development to choose?” This is about development methodologies.
