The latest Emergent Podcast episode features Sal D’Agostino, Emergent Software’s Director of Product Delivery. Sal discusses the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) and the profound changes it has undergone since the early days of the software development industry. He provides insight into Agile development and its impact on the way teams deliver software.
The evolution of the SDLC
Sal discusses the transformation of the SDLC over time. When software development was new, processes mimicked those from the manufacturing industry, breaking development into linear sequential phases. This is called waterfall methodology. Months might be spent planning an entire project before starting.
As the industry progressed, speed to market became increasingly important. Modern practices like Agile leverage the steps of the SDLC like waterfall does, but in a faster, more flexible way.
In the podcast, Sal offers his expertise on modern Agile development.
Applying the SDLC
The software development lifecycle is traditionally broken into 7 stages:
- Requirements gathering
- Planning
- Design
- Implementation
- Testing
- Deployment
- Maintenance
Decades ago, using the waterfall methodology, these could each have been multi-month phases. But modern methodologies move faster and are less rigid about the order of the steps. Sal explains that today, teams take elements of each step and iterate to build individual pieces of the project.
In the episode, Sal also gives real-life examples of the process at Emergent Software. For example, Emergent has a workshop process to help with requirements gathering.
In Sal’s opinion, there’s no wrong choice for tools to use throughout this process. Sometimes the Emergent team simply uses post-it notes on the wall. One of his favorite tools is draw.io, a virtual whiteboard that can be customized with standard pieces.
Agile development tips
To wrap up the podcast, Sal offered some advice. He suggests that regardless of the methodology you use, it’s important to figure out how your end users can influence the direction of the product. Whether you’re practicing waterfall, Agile, DevOps, or other methodologies, it’s important to focus on feedback from users, not just leadership.
Learn more about the SDLC or Emergent Software’s custom software development process.
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