How is plan-driven development different from agile development?
Shahzaib Munawar
- May 30th, 2022
This blog post unlocks the fundamental difference between plan-driven development and agile development. You’ll get knowledge on both effective development methods while learning their pros and cons effectively.
A plan-driven development is a process where all the activities are planned in advance, and we measure the progress in advance against that plan. So as it appears from the term ‘plan-driven development, it is always planned, and the results are to be shown at the end of the product.
While in agile development, planning is always incremental, where you can change the plan according to your customer requirements. So, as the term ‘agile development’ suggests, it is the process-based method where one can alter the way things and planning and replace them with the more suitable ones.
Which one is the best?
Well, both have different approaches. They are used with the feasibility and requirements of the project, and implementation is based on what the project needs.
To uncover the more detailed differences between plan-driven development and agile development, let’s study their definitions and more details with different approaches.
Plan-Driven Development:
It is a software development method. When a user wants to develop all the features that should be developed in a final product, this plan plays its role. It also determines how all those features should be developed. So, you can say that this is an ACTION plan based on executing an arranged set of task-specified levels.
It is basically an attitude to software engineering where it locates how the developmental procedure will occur. This process handles mega project engineering and administers the old style of methodology to tackle the software development ventures. Also, management planning is unfolded to measure progress and make project decisions.
Planning of Projects
In software engineering, you can say that it is an attitude of software engineering to feature the development process and where it is taking place.
So, a plan-driven development project focus on setting out a program for any project that includes the available resources, work completion scheduling, work breakdowns, etc. Below are the more detailed checklists.
- To organize the team and the roles or team members.
- Probabilities and analysis of risk, strategies of arising, and prospects
- Hardware and software requirements of the resources.
- To decide the milestones, deliveries, and activities
- To allow the location to people
- To monitor and report the system
Characteristics of Plan Driven Development
- You can focus on the repeatability and predictability
- It is defined, as an incremental improving process, and a standardized way
- It is done through a proper documentation process
- There is a software system architecture that has been defined up-front
- You can find detailed plans, roles, work-product descriptions, workflow, and responsibilities
- It contains resources for specialists: process monitoring, controlling, and educating
- It Focuses on verification and validation
Following are the methodologies of the plan-driven method:
- Personal Software Process (PSP)
- Team Software Process (TSP, TSPi)
- Rational Unified Process (RUP)
To understand the term more, let’s uncover the phases of the plan-driven method:
Inception Phase –In this phase, we decide what to do and the scope of the project. An initial project plan has been made with the requirement of rough estimations of time and resources. Risks are defined and handled in the elaboration phase.
Elaboration phase – This phase analyzes the problem domain and defines a technically reasonable architecture. Lessen the most significant risks to the projects. Make a comprehensive project plan with highlighted activities. •
Construction phase – In this phase, the product’s development, integration, and testation are defined. It also optimizes the resources so that they can work out equally and recycle each other’s work.
Transition phase – Deliver the product to the customers and sustain it.
Agile Software Development:
Now, let’s study the agile software in detail so that you can comprehend both terminologies well.
In agile software development, software development methodologies centers around the iterative developmental idea, in which needs and solutions revolve through an alliance between self-organizing cross-functional teams. It is also crucial to note that agile development enables teams to deliver value faster with excellent quality, prediction, and aptitude to respond to change. There are two most widely used methods called Scrum and Kanban.
Below you can find the most frequently asked questions about Agile and Scrum.
What is Agile?
- Agile software development belongs to a group of software development methodologies centered on iterative aspect development, in which requirements and solutions progress through cooperation between self-organizing cross-functional teams.
- Agile processes usually promote a well-disciplined project management process. It also boosts frequent checks and variation, a leadership viewpoint that inspires teamwork, self-organization, and liability.
- Agile development denotes any development method associated with the ideas of the Agile Manifesto. Fourteen leading figures in the software industry developed this Manifesto and revealed their experience of what approaches should and should not work for software development.
What is Scrum?
Scrum is a subgroup of Agile. It is a trivial process framework for agile development and the most widely-used one.
What are the benefits of agile development?
By reading about the benefits of agile, you can completely comprehend the difference between the two approaches.
- More responsive to requests
- High-value features
- Delivered more quickly with short cycles
Development team
- Enjoy development work is valued and used
- Reduced non-productive work
Scrum Master
- Planning tracking in daily meetings
- Tremendous awareness of the project state
- Catching and addressing issues quickly
Vendor
- Focused development on high-value features
- Increased efficiently
- Reduce wastage and decrease overhead
Product Owner
- Development work aligns with customer needs
- Frequent opportunities to re-prioritize work
- Maximum delivery value
PMOS and C-Level Executives
- High visibility of daily project development
- Adjust strategies based on complex information
- Plan effectively with less speculation
Wind-Up:
To summarize the above discussion, one can conclude that the agile approach focuses on iteration across activities. Therefore, the design and requirements are prepared side-by-side instead of separated.
While in plan-driven software process is not a waterfall model – a plan-driven model is usually incremental development where delivery is possible.
In addition, in a plan-driven method, if a user wants to anticipate all of the features in the end product, he can well comprehend how best to build those features. So, the work plan is based on executing a sequential set of work-specific phases.
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