Waterfall vs. Agile: Which Methodology Suits Your Business the Best

If you catch yourself thinking about increasing your project management, you’re one of those who consider it more seriously. Unfortunately, most companies usually don’t take it as considerably as it should be or just use it from time to time.

For better project management, it is essential to choose a management methodology that will perfectly suit your project and company as a whole. It can be Agile or Waterfall — it depends on you, but for you to help, we have prepared an article where we will compare two widely used methodologies: Agile and Waterfall. We will look at what makes them different and compare their ways of working with different aspects.

What’s a Project Management Methodology?

Project management methodologies deal with such aspects as planning, initiating, executing, monitoring, and even closing the project. Such a way of management helps to ease the workflow and organize the teamwork well.

As there are different methodologies, they use different ways of management. Their approach to aspects is distinct which causes different results of the project. Among the most popular management methodologies are the following:

• Waterfall. This is a traditional methodology, has a linear structure, and is widely used for hardware development.
• Agile. Created by software developers, this methodology helps to deliver the results continuously and provide services to the users faster.

Below we will describe the main differences between these two methodologies.

Waterfall vs. Agile: The Main Differences

Some differences between these two methodologies are their way of delivering projects and how they can change during the development process. With the use of the Waterfall methodology, you need to plan every step of the development and make everything without circling back. In turn, Agile gives developers more freedom (starting the project without defined resources, possibility of changing the plan, and delivering the project step by step).

Considering all differences of these two methodologies they are distinct in such areas:

• Documenting and planning of processes.
• Way of delivering the project.
• Collaboration with the customer
• Flexibility.

Documenting and planning of processes

The documentation process of each methodology is quite different. Let’s see it:

Waterfall. This is a linear approach which means that all the stages must be planned before the development process and strictly followed one-by-one as there is no possibility of changing the previous stages of the project. Due to this, Waterfall methodology requires great planning and documenting every step.

Agile. This type of methodology doesn’t require strict planning of processes as it gives chances to discuss every single step with developers and the possibility of changes even if it is the last stage of the project.

Way of delivering the project

Even though they both deliver the product, the way of doing that is different in each method. Let’s look closer:

Waterfall. The end software is delivered to the customer after the verification stage (here the software is being checked if it meets all the requirements of the customer). This means that the customer knows for sure what they will get and that saves a lot of developers’ time.

Agile. This methodology provides that without accurate documentation developers will create the project as they think will be better, which may not always fit customers’ expectations or work with the customer to create what they exactly want.

3. Collaboration with the customer

Waterfall. Customers are only involved in the stage of creating and drafting the documentation which saves a lot of customers’ time.

Agile. This approach involves customers collaborating with the developers to create the perfectly fitted software.

4. Flexibility

Waterfall. This methodology is not flexible as it strictly follows the pre-written stages. The development team once they finish the stage must start the next step.

Agile. This approach is one of the most flexible ones as it allows changes to the plan at every stage. It is done by constant meetings (between team members or between developers and customers), providing feedback from the customer on different stages, or scheduling the iteration.

Interested in which methodology suits you better? Check it out in our blog.