waterfall model and a useful role in modern systems development

ABSTRACT

In the software development section, there existing a lot of type of models that can you help to create software. Each of the models has its own characteristics and identity that makes each model unique from the others. Each SDLC has its advantages and disadvantages according to which we decide of which model should be implemented under which conditions. In this paper, we will examine a waterfall model and a useful role in modern systems development.

INTRODUCTION

The waterfall life cycle model is a software engineering method that was initially created in 1970 by Winston. W. Royce (Stoica, M., Mircea, M., & Ghilic-Micu, B., 2013). This model is one of the basic innovations in the computer science field that changed completely the way that software works and interact between activities. Its names come from their structure specification that it has. Every stage following a specific downward structure that seems like a waterfall and in order to get successful, every activity following by one another (Prakriti Trivedi and Ashwani Sharma, 2013). Also, the waterfall method is the easiest and convenient way for every engineer to begin with, due to the reason that before you tried to design an application you have to write down your requirements, ideas and your thoughts in order to design and coding them.

LITERATURE REVIEW

To begin with, a waterfall model follows a structure that every engineer has to take into consideration each one of the following phases. All the phases are fall one after the other so that the output of the last phase is an input of the following phase.

The five stages of the waterfall model are as follows:

Requirements Definition

At the beginning of each software, managers, and users gather information and plan about the project that includes (functional and non-functional) requirements of system specifications. The purpose of this phase is to perform a preliminary investigation to recognize a business scope or any problems that exist before. And through the feasibility study, a lot of sections based on operational, technical and economical can be solved where a set of solutions suggestions analyse for a future schedule of a project.   (Gary Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman, Harry J. Rosenblatt , 2007)

System and Software Design

Once they finished the first phase that gathers the appropriate information and requirements of the software, the second phase is the design of the actual system.  So, this phase is actually the main stage of a project for a reason that developers focus on how the end product should look like before they are writing a single line of code.

Implementation and testing

In the following, after the actual design of software, developers have to turn the design process into running code, in order, the software obtains a proper functionality. Also, at this period of the stage, they are using small programs to test each unit of software if is functional which is called unit testing.

Integration and System testing

Last but not least, integration and testing of the software level where individual units are tested together in order the software meets the user specifications and to avoid any interruptions in a whole program. Finally, after the successful testing software delivered to the end-users for use.

Operation and Maintenance:

Even if the software was fully integrated and tested into the end-users there are some issues that come up from the client environment. So, to fix those issues a beta version of the application released. Once the beta version released maintenance achieved by delivering the updated changes into the client environment efficiently.

Figure 1:Waterfall model (G. Kumar and P. K. Bhatia, 2014)

ADVANTAGES

As I said before, the Waterfall model is one of the easiest and efficient ways that every programmer used in order to gather and identify the information that they want. But before they are starting a coding and a designing phase, the requirements that the user gave to programs should be more clearly in order to prevent any bugs and the system should become more understandable for the users (Naresh Kumar, A. S. Zadgaonkar, Abhinav Shukla, 2013).

Another advantage that plays a useful role in a waterfall model is where large companies generate and maintain the system to be more structured and manageable without any overrun cost on delivery of it (Kan, 2003).

In addition, the first two stages ended in the production of formal specification so the waterfall cycle can be helpful for learning methods to exchange among the colleagues at dispersed areas.

DISADVANTAGES

However, one of the biggest disadvantages of the waterfall model is that it does not allow for much reflection or revision (Basem S. El-Haik, 2010). This means that once the application is in the testing phase it is very difficult to go back and change anything that does not meet the requirements and for this reason, a waterfall method breaks down in order to deliver a product with a changing requirement.

Moreover, if the project teams missed some requirements that will be inserted previously the cost of that might be more expensive due to the reason that they have to move again to the implementation phase for recoding and maybe the software will not be reliable (Alan Dennis, Barbara Haley Wixom, 2003).

Table 1:Advantages and Disadvantages of Waterfall Model

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, we presented the theory of the waterfall model in life cycle development and the advantages and disadvantages of the software development life cycle. From our research, we have conducted that the waterfall model requires more execution time to proceed and analyse the requirements before going into production. Also, the client must know that the model was implemented according to the project specifications in order to be sure that the functionality is correct (Stoica, Marian, Mircea, Marinela,Ghilic-Micu, Bogdan, 2013). Finally, a waterfall approach is more suited to projects where requirements are stable and unlikely to any changes or in which customer participation is unnecessary.

REFERENCES

Alan Dennis, Barbara Haley Wixom, 2003. System Analysis and Design. 2nd ed. s.l.:s.n.

Basem S. El-Haik, A. S., 2010. Software Design for Six Sigma: A Roadmap for Excellence. s.l.:s.n.

2014. Kumar and P. K. Bhatia, 2014. Comparative Analysis of Software Engineering Models from Traditional to Modern Methodologies. Fourth International Conference on Advanced Computing & Communication Technologies, pp. 189-196.

Gary Shelly, Thomas J. Cashman, Harry J. Rosenblatt, 2007. In: System Analysis and Design. s.l.:s.n., p. 21.

Kan, S. H., 2003. The Waterfall Development Model. s.l.:s.n.

Naresh Kumar, A. S. Zadgaonkar, Abhinav Shukla, 2013. Evolving a New Software Development Life Cycle Model SDLC-2013 with Client Satisfaction. International Journal of Soft Computing and Engineering (IJSCE), Volume-3(Issue-1), p. 217.

Prakriti Trivedi and Ashwani Sharma, 2013. A Comparative Study between Iterative Waterfall. 2nd International Conference on Information Management in the Knowledge Economy.

Stoica, M., Mircea, M., & Ghilic-Micu, B., 2013. Software development: Agile vs. traditional.. Informatica Economica, 17(4), pp. 64-76..

Stoica, Marian, Mircea, Marinela,Ghilic-Micu, Bogdan, 2013. Software Development: Agile vs. Traditional. Informatica Economica, vol.17(4), pp. 64-76.