Waterfall vs Agile – What is the difference?

The waterfall model is an approach to various stages. The next stage begins when the previous stage is completed. These stages include gathering the requirements of the project, designing the project, implementing the design by coding, testing the code and last is the maintenance phase.

Now, when you begin the first stage of gathering requirements, you can’t go to the next stage of designing the project without finishing the first stage. Furthermore, the planning of the project needs to be perfect as you will not be able to change it afterward.

On the other hand, the Agile method follows iterative development. In every iteration of the Agile method, you will need to develop, test, and launch. Thereafter, you can get feedback on each iteration. Thus, with constant iterations and feedback, you can make any product successful and better. Furthermore, the agile methodology uses shorter, more rapid iterations of the system development life cycle. The agile method divides the project into smaller, more manageable sprints.

Now you understand what are waterfall and Agile methodologies, let’s know the benefits of the methodologies.

• The Waterfall Method requires extensive preparation in advance, but in return, it provides a full vision of every step of the company.
• The waterfall methodology’s predefined schedule streamlines project administration.
• You can know the scope of the project and the budget before starting the project. Thus, you can go according to the plan.
• The requirements are incorporated in the wireframe in the design phase and it is given more focus. The reason behind this is that you can get a clear idea of how the project will look like.

Benefits of Agile Methodology:

• Continuous feedback and testing of every iteration help in developing higher-quality software.
• Furthermore, the outcome of the project is better due to an increase in transparency.
• Agile guarantees that teams work on several features simultaneously and have expertise in multiple areas.
• You can make changes to the project while it is being carried out without causing a halt in development.

Disadvantages of Waterfall Methodology:

• It might be expensive to hire more developers to work on new features. Furthermore, doing so would interrupt the development process.
• Upgrading or adding new features to technology sometimes necessitates a complicated migration process.
• The procedure’s rigidity makes it impossible to make last-minute adjustments.
• There is a reduction in customer interaction. Thus, you will get a reduction in feedback.

Disadvantages of Agile Methodology:

• When resources aren’t properly managed, it’s hard to know what to expect in terms of price, logistics, and completion time.
• Because of the lack of detailed documentation, onboarding new developers into the workflow will be challenging.
• Because separate teams are responsible for various tasks, the final product is often disjointed in agile projects.
• Due to the iterative style of agile software development, tracking progress may be difficult.

Several scenarios must be taken into account when contrasting the agile and waterfall approaches to developing software. The waterfall method is useful when most of the criteria and adjustments for your software project are set in stone. Furthermore, you can go with waterfall if you are creating software that must adhere to certain regulations.
In case, the customers have established requirements, costs, and schedules then you should use the waterfall approach.

On the other hand, you should use Agile methodology for developing MVP or an app that needs continuous addition of new features or functionalities. Furthermore, if there is a need for continuous input into the creation of software then Agile is the best choice. In case, your project is of real-time data analysis or processing then you need to go for Agile.