Information Technologies (IT) continues to look for the "silver bullet" that will push

software out as quickly and efficiently as possible. This "silver bullet" has taken several
forms over the last 25 years, encompassing everything from hardware, to operating
systems, to integrated development environments, to software development (SDLC)
methodologies. In this article we will focus on the SDLC methodologies, the relative
strengths and weaknesses of the commonly-employed methodologies, their common
goals, and their fundamental differences.

In order to keep the discussion focused, we will begin by qualifying the three main
attributes of an SDLC methodology. A methodology must:

1. Support the Design of software to meet a business need

2. Support the Construction of software to meet the specified design
3. Support the Deployment of software to production

In addition, for the purposes of this discussion, a methodology should also support
Maintenance of all deployed software artifacts.

If we have all these characteristics in play, we have a full-fledged SDLC methodology.

There are many disciplines involved in meeting the objectives of any methodology --
everything from business analysis, to software development, to testing, to release
management, to change management, and so on. The objective of this article is to
highlight the differences between methodologies, not the specific processes within each
methodology.

In this article we will give a brief overview of the development and deployment of
SDLC methodologies, describe the two most common models (adaptive and predictive),
describe their relative strengths and weakness (differences), and finally discuss how and
when to leverage the appropriate aspects of each to meet your development goals.