A Comprehensive Study of Commonly Practiced Heavy & Light Weight Software Methodologies
It provides a comparative analysis for software industry practitioners, but it is incremental as it synthesizes existing knowledge without introducing new methods or data.
This paper describes the characteristics, strengths, and weaknesses of commonly used heavyweight and lightweight software methodologies, such as Waterfall and Agile, to aid project managers in selecting suitable models for their projects.
Software has been playing a key role in the development of modern society. Software industry has an option to choose suitable methodology/process model for its current needs to provide solutions to give problems. Though some companies have their own customized methodology for developing their software but majority agrees that software methodologies fall under two categories that are heavyweight and lightweight. Heavyweight methodologies (Waterfall Model, Spiral Model) are also known as the traditional methodologies, and their focuses are detailed documentation, inclusive planning, and extroverted design. Lightweight methodologies (XP, SCRUM) are, referred as agile methodologies. Light weight methodologies focused mainly on short iterative cycles, and rely on the knowledge within a team. The aim of this paper is to describe the characteristics of popular heavyweight and lightweight methodologies that are widely practiced in software industries. We have discussed the strengths and weakness of the selected models. Further we have discussed the strengths and weakness between the two opponent methodologies and some criteria is also illustrated that help project managers for the selection of suitable model for their projects.