2.3.3

Waterfall Lifecycle - Strengths & Weaknesses

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Strengths and Weaknesses of the Waterfall Lifecycle

Different software development methodologies are suitable for different projects.

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Merits of waterfall lifecycle

  • The waterfall model is very easy to understand and follow and each stage can only be started when the previous one completes.
  • Waterfall is very easy to manage as the team is only focusing on one stage at a time.
  • Waterfall has fewer production issues during development due to the amount of time invested in user requirements, analysis and design.
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Drawbacks of waterfall lifecycle

  • Waterfall is inflexible and doesn’t cope with changing requirements part way through the project.
    • This can cause delays and significant cost increases as additional work will be required.
  • Waterfall doesn’t work very well for very complex or long term projects as it would take too long to get through each stage of the process.
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Drawbacks cont.

  • It can be very difficult or impossible for a project team to capture all of the user requirements in one go.
    • Often the client doesn’t know what they want, and this would cause big issues for the rest of the process.
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Usage

  • Waterfall works well for small to medium projects.
  • Waterfall is especially effective when the client has a very clear and precise picture of what they want to be developed.

Jump to other topics

1Components of a Computer

2Software & Software Development

3Exchanging Data

4Data Types, Data Structures & Algorithms

5Legal, Moral, Cultural & Ethical Issues

6Elements of Computational Thinking

6.1Thinking Abstractly

6.2Thinking Ahead

6.3Thinking Procedurally

6.4Thinking Logically

6.5Thinking Concurrently

7Problem Solving & Programming

8Algorithms

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