SDLC Agile model follow the concept of incremental model as well as iterative model to develop software projects. This model also focuses on process adaptability and customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of working software product. When the development process are run in Agile model then model follows the incremental rapid cycles for successfully develop actual system. Each rapid cycle has a small incremental in the functional behavior with new releases. Each iteration for successfully addition in previous releases typically takes from about one to three weeks. Every new release involves cross functional teams working simultaneously on various areas like planning, requirements analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing to ensure the software quality is maintained.
Design phases | Advantages | Disadvantages | Pros & Cons | Applications
Agile Methods divide the product into small incremental builds. These builds are provided in iterations. At the end of the iteration a working product is displayed to the customer and important stakeholders. Agile model of software developed is used for time critical applications development. Extreme Programming (Window XP) is currently one of the most well-known Agile model development life cycle model.
Design phases of Agile model:
As we already discuss that Agile model follow the concept of incremental model and iterative model. So that Agile model divide the product into small incremental builds and each builds follows some of the steps to called design phases of Agile model. We discus here all the design phases of Agile model;
- Planning phase:
In the planning phase teams of system requirements are identification expertise interact with customer directly. The team expertise discuss with the main objective of the customer and what they want with their product. All the functionality and working perspectives of the product concern in this phase of Agile model.
The aim of this planning phase includes understanding the system requirements by continuous communication between the customer and the system analyst team members.
- Requirement Analysis:
Requirement analysis phase of Agile model deals with after understanding customer functionality about their product team member concern with development team expertise and ready the documentation about the requirements gathering for the product. The documentation is one of the very important activity and need to be managed well, as most of the customers are not sure about what exactly they need.
- Designing and Building phase:
In this phases of Agile model development team members design prototype according to fulfill the requirements of customer acceptation about their product. After the completion of prototype design phase the team following the phases and build the structure of the product. Most of the time these design and build phase work together but when the product is large in functionality and number of modules are more than these phases are working parallel and make the model more efficient and high respond.
- Testing phase:
In this phase the developer tests the components and the interfaces with the connected components. The overall testing time is reduced in Agile model as the prototypes are independently tested during each successive iteration process. Since most of the programming components have already been tested, it reduces the risk of any major issues.
Advantages and disadvantages of Agile model:
Every software development model has own advantages and disadvantages that decide the working area of the model. Here we are listing all the advantage and disadvantages of agile model:
Advantages of SDLC Agile model:
The advantage to developing software under agile model is that this model highly considers the customer reliability and satisfaction about providing functionality with the developed product. So this model of software life cycle customer satisfaction rapidly by continuous delivery of useful software. Customer interactions and review about the project are emphasized rather than process and tools. Customers, developers and testers constantly interact with each other.
In the Agile model the upgrade version of the product released very frequently to check the working functionality of the system going in right direction as per the pre-decided system product. This model providing the face-to-face conversation in between customer and the development team which add in the advantages to enhance the product planning and minimizing risk. In addition continuous attention to technical excellence, good design and regular adaptation to changing circumstances makes this model more flexible.
Unlike the waterfall model in agile model very limited planning is required to get started with the project. Agile assumes that the end user needs are ever changing in a dynamic business and IT world. Changes can be discussed and features can be newly affected or removed based on feedback. This effectively gives the customer the finished system they want or need.
Disadvantages of Agile model:
In the concern of disadvantage of Agile model to develop software is that it is difficult to assess the effort required at the beginning of the software development life cycle in case of software deliverables when software is large ones. This model has lack of emphasis on necessary designing and documentation. The project can easily get taken off track if the customer representative is not clear what final outcome that they want.
In agile model only senior programmers are capable of taking the kind of decisions required during the development process. Hence it has no place for newbie programmers, unless combined with experienced resources.
Pros and Cons of Agile model:
Agile modeling approaches are being widely accepted by the heavy software development industries globally; however this method may not always be suitable for all products. There are many pros and cons of agile model. In the following list we are trying to cover all pros and cons of agile model, follow us;
| Pros of Agile model | Cons of Agile model |
| Is a very realistic approach to software development | An overall plan, an agile leader and agile PM practice is a must without which it will not work. |
| Promotes teamwork and cross training. | Strict delivery management dictates the scope, functionality to be delivered, and adjustments to meet the deadlines. |
| Functionality can be developed rapidly and demonstrated. | Depends heavily on customer interaction, so if customer is not clear, team can be driven in the wrong direction. |
| Resource requirements are minimum. | There is very high individual dependency, since there is minimum documentation generated. |
| Suitable for fixed or changing requirements | Transfer of technology to new team members may be quite challenging due to lack of documentation. |
| Delivers early partial working solutions. | More risk of sustainability, maintainability and extensibility. |
| Good model for environments that change steadily. | Not suitable for handling complex dependencies. |
| Minimal rules, documentation easily employed. | |
| Enables concurrent development and delivery within an overall planned context. | |
| Little or no planning required | |
| Gives flexibility to developers | |
| Easy to manage |
Application of Agile model:
Various software life cycle models in SDLC approach are available and used by all software development companies. Each software development application has different requirements based on internal and external factors. Agile model is the standard and upgraded SDLC model. There have many requirements and useful situations where this agile model is highly suitable and handle the problem very smartly:
- Agile model is useful when system have rapidly new changes are needed to be implementation required. The freedom agile gives to change is very important. New changes can be implemented at very less cost because of the frequency of new increments that are produced.
- When to implement a new feature and the development team required losing only the work of a few days, or even only hours, to roll back and implement it.
- When both system developers and stakeholders alike to interact with the under development project.
- Applicable when developer required more freedom of time and options than if the software was developed in a more rigid sequential way.
- Provide ability to the authorized development team member about to leave important decisions until more or better data or even entire hosting programs are available; meaning the project can continue to move forward without fear of reaching a sudden standstill.
