Software Life Cycles

Software development is inherently iterative. This chapter covers the two most common software development life cycles: waterfall and Agile. It describes the capability maturity model integration (CMMI), which is a framework for determining the effectiveness of a set of processes that make up a software life cycle. The waterfall model for software development emulates a waterfall; it is a cascade of linear software processes. The waterfall method is widely used because it is easy to plan and implement since the software requirements and deliverables are defined in the beginning. Agile software development life cycles emphasize a series of iterative short development cycles called sprints that each deliver a fully functional set of software features ready to be used by an end user. CMMI is a model or framework that describes what software processes are necessary in a mature software life cycle and specifies a set of attributes for each process type.