Waterfall Vs Agile

Project Management Methodologies:

Project Management Methodologies are like the blueprint of a project, guiding the project team to build a successful project. Among many other methodologies, two methodologies are the mostly adopted one, namely Waterfall and Agile Methodologies.

Waterfall Methodology:

Waterfall Model methodology is also known as Linear Sequential Life Cycle Model. The waterfall method is a traditional project management approach that uses sequential phases to define, build, test, and release project deliverables. Each phase is completed and approved before the team moves on to the next phase. The project can't move backwards to previous phases.

Agile Methodology:

Agile methodology is a practice that helps continuous iteration of development and testing in the software development process. In this model, development and testing activities are concurrent, unlike the Waterfall model. This process allows more communication between customers, developers, managers, and testers.

The main difference between waterfall and agile methods is in the goals; the waterfall method wants to get everything right the first time, and agile methods want to get things released quickly. Differences in adaptability, documentation, testing, and collaboration support the different goals.

Key Difference:

• Waterfall is a Linear Sequential Life Cycle Model whereas Agile is a continuous iteration of development and testing in the software development process.
• Waterfall is a structured software development methodology whereas Agile methodology is known for its flexibility.
• Waterfall methodology is a sequential design process whereas Agile follows an incremental approach.
• In Waterfall methodology, testing comes after the “Build” phase whereas in Agile methodology testing goes concurrently with software development.
• Waterfall has no scope of changing the requirements once the project development starts whereas Agile allows changes in project development requirement.
• In the waterfall method, the process is always straightforward so, project manager plays an essential role during every stage of SDLC whereas The Agile Team members are interchangeable, as a result, they work faster. There is also no need for project managers because the projects are managed by the entire team.
• Waterfall Methodology reduces risk in the firm fixed price contracts by getting risk agreement at the beginning of the process whereas Agile methodology works exceptionally well with Time & Materials or non-fixed funding. It may increase stress in fixed-price scenarios.
• All the project development phases like designing, development, testing, etc. are completed once in the Waterfall model whereas Agile methodology follows an iterative development approach, due to which planning, development, prototyping and other software development phases may appear more than once.