Software Development Lifecycle Models

The Basic Types

Christina Wallin

Rikard Land

ABB Corporate Research

Mlardalens Hgskola
Department of Computer Engineering
Box 883
721 23 Vsters
+46 (0)21 10 70 35

Department of Industrial IT
721 78 Vsters
+46 (0)21 34 50 74
[email protected]

ABSTRACT
Throughout the second half of the 20th century, the use of
computers has grown enormous. As a consequence,
software has become more and more diverse and complex.
In addition, there are increasing demands on software it
must be cheaper, have more functionality, be delivered
faster, and be of higher quality than previously.
In the ever-changing environment and society of software
development, it is obvious that the processes and methods
used when developing small programs are not sufficient
when constructing large systems. As one answer to this,
different development lifecycle models have been defined.
This paper describes the three basic types of software
development lifecycle models, from the sequential models
via incremental models to evolutionary models. The
iterative development method is also discussed, and we
also elaborate the connection of development lifecycle
models to two emerging fields in software engineering:
software architecture and component-based software
development. The paper is biased towards computer
science students.

Keywords
Software lifecycle, software development, software
engineering, sequential model, waterfall model, V model,
incremental
development,
iterative
development,
evolutionary development, spiral model.

1. INTRODUCTION
In very small software development tasks, such as
assignments in university programming courses, it is often
feasible to start writing program code and make the
program work. It is possible to have an overview over the
whole program during the short period of time until the
assignment is approved and after the assignment is

[email protected]

approved, there is often no need to extend or maintain the

code.
This code-and-fix development lifecycle model [5] may be
appropriate for course assignments, but is clearly
insufficient in practical applications. We know that virtually
every commercial piece of software is too large and is
developed for such a long time that it is impossible for
everybody to have a complete overview.
One problem is that there are many related terms in software
development that may be confused with each other. Terms
as: software project, product and system. System, product
and development lifecycles. Sequential, incremental or
evolutionary lifecycles. Iterative development. Software
development method, process and model etc. Architecture,
components and platforms. Consensus of the interpretation
of each term is not reached yet in the software community.
We will provide our definitions of some of these terms in
this paper, and focus on the definition of three basic types
of software development lifecycle models: the sequential,
incremental and evolutionary models. In sequential
lifecycle models, the development phases are traversed in
sequence, with an evolutionary lifecycle model, there is a
cyclic approach, and incremental lifecycle models are
something in between. We compare them to each other, and
also describe their relation to the iterative method of
working and to software architecture and component based
software engineering.
In this paper we focus on the time covering the
development of one particular version of a software product
or system, from requirements definition until requirements
validation. We believe we will give a more clear view of
software development lifecycles than when models are
presented unrelated.1

The figures of this paper are in general intended to serve as

examples of the general issues discussed in the text, and

2. SEQUENTIAL MODELS
The sequential models were the first software development
lifecycle models to address software specific issues, and
they are still widely used especially in large organizations.
These models stem from common practice; to our
knowledge no specific person or group is considered the
inventor.
The sequential models build on the assumption that the
problem to be solved can be completely understood and
described before a solution is designed. A design that
satisfies all aspects of the problem can be specified before
implementation. All implementation can be done before
validation and delivery. This approach can be applicable if
experienced developers work in a well-known problem
domain, with well-known technology and with short
development times as for example in software maintenance.
The main risk with the sequential approach is that
requirements may change during the development time and
that the delivered system or product in the end is not what
the customer or market wants any more. The main
opportunity is that the sequential approach makes it easy to
plan and follow up progress

2.1 Pure Waterfall

Each tasks result in documents or other artifacts that are

used as specifications for the next task, e.g. the detailed
design specifications forms the basis for implementation
task.
In the ideal form, one task should be completed before the
next starts. There is however variants with overlapping
tasks [5], and these are probably used more in reality.
Implementation starts when some of the detailed design is
ready, component tests when components are implemented
etc.

2.2 The V Model

The most commonly known variant of the waterfall model,
the V model, explicitly includes the observation that the
result of each specification task must be verified in a
corresponding test task. See Figure 2.
Validation

Requirements
Definition

Validation
(Acceptance)
Test

Verification

Architectur
Design
Detailed
Design

Verification
(Integration)
Test
Component
Test

Implementation

The most basic of all sequential models is the Waterfall

model. It seems to be the first named software development
lifecycle model to be described and used. It defines some
basic tasks, which are carried out in sequence: requirements
definition,
architecture
design,
detailed
design,
implementation, component verification, integration
verification and requirements validation. See Figure 1.

Figure 2. The V Model earlier tasks are verified later.

2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages

The sequential lifecycle models have the advantage of
being easy to understand, and it is easy to plan a project
according to a sequential approach.
Since sequential lifecycle models are easy to understand,
they are still commonly referred to, while practice has
shown that they present a too idealistic view of how
software development is carried out. In [1] the old way of
looking at software development is described:
Conceptually, the requirements document gets tossed over
the wall into the designers cubicle, and the designer must
come forth with a satisfactory design.

Requirements
Definition
Architectur
Design
Detailed
Design

Implementation
Component
Test
Verification
(Integration)
Test
Validation
(Acceptance)
Test

Figure 1. The waterfall development lifecycle model.

therefore often contain details that can be omitted without loss

of understanding.

Early errors are commonly regarded as the most serious,

because the rest of the phases must be re-entered to correct
them the compiler finds syntax errors interactively;
detailed design errors are found when verifying against the
detailed design specification; an architectural design error is
found during the integration verification, and forces you to
step back to the architectural design task again, make the
corrections, redo detailed design etc. Not until the very end
is the system or product validated against the requirements
specification, and if the requirements are found to be
incomplete or wrong, the whole piece of software may be
more or less wasted.

In the pure sequential models, it is not possible to verify the

early tasks (for example let the customer see parts of the
system) until the very end of the development lifecycle. The
unavoidable, and unpleasant, conclusion is thus that the
early errors are extremely costly, since you dont find out
until you get to system testing that one of the requirements
was missing or wrong [5]. We can however observe that
the tasks identified are intrinsic to software development, as
we shall see in other life cycle models; the problems arise
from the treatment of these activities as disjoint, sequential
phases [5].

Requirements
Definition
Architectur
Design
Subsystem 1
Construction
Subsystem 2
Construction
Subsystem N
Construction
Verification
(Integration )
Test
Validation
(Acceptance)
Test

These drawbacks have forced more elaborate lifecycle

models to evolve addressing these problems. We will now
describe the incremental and evolutionary lifecycle models.

3. INCREMENTAL MODELS
With incremental development lifecycle models, risk of
developing the wrong thing is reduced by breaking the
project into a series of small subprojects [increments] [5].
The total scope of work is decomposed to smaller chunks of
work, increments, based on the risks, architecture and/or the
requirements.
In incremental models, as in sequential models, the overall
requirements of the final system or product are known at the
start of the development. In incremental models however a
limited set of requirements is allocated to each increment
and with each successive (internal) release more
requirements are addressed until the final (external) release
satisfies all requirements.
One risk with the incremental approach is that the first
releases addresses such a limited set of requirements that
the customer could be dissatisfied, one opportunity on the
other hand is that wrong or missing requirements can be
corrected in time.

Figure 3. Staged Delivery Model.

The order in which the subsystems are developed can be
selected in different ways. Either the riskiest parts are
developed up front, or the fundamentals of the architecture
or the most important requirements.
Construction in Figure 3 and Figure 4 means the tasks of
detailed design, implementation and component test for
each subsystem.

3.2 The Parallel Development Model

In parallel development the different subsystems are
developed at the same time but by different teams instead.
See Figure 4. Integration is done in the end. This approach
can decrease the calendar time needed for the development,
that is the Time To Market (TTM), if there are enough
resources available, but the risk to get problems with
integration is at the same time increased.
Requirements
Definition
Architectur
Design
Team 1; Subsystem 1 Construction

3.1 The Staged Delivery Model

In the Staged Delivery lifecycle model [5] the development
work is focused on the construction of one part
(subsystem) of the final product or system at the time. See
Figure 3. Each subsystem is finalized and released internally
before the construction of the next subsystem is started.
Integration of the different subsystems can either be done
continuously or in the end.

Team 2; Subsystem 2 Construction

Team N; Subsystem N Construction
Verification
(Integration )
Test
Validation
(Acceptance)
Test

Figure 4. Parallel Development Model.

The parallel development model does not support changing
requirements very well once the requirements definition
phase is left behind, the requirements specification is
frozen (cannot be changed). In this respect there is no
difference between parallel and sequential lifecycle models.

4. EVOLUTIONARY MODELS
Under some circumstances, an evolutionary approach to
the software development lifecycle is chosen. This is often
the case in research or technology development, where
often only prototypes are developed, and where all the
requirements cannot be known in advance.
More sequential
Sequential

More cyclic
Incremental

Evolutionary

Type of development lifecycle model

Figure 5. The relationship between sequential, incremental

and evolutionary development lifecycle models.
It is difficult to define the exact border between incremental
and evolutionary models McConnell [5] describes them
together. Incremental models may be seen as something in
between sequential and evolutionary models, as Figure 5
describes.

example the sequential.) In the end of each cycle, there is a

usable prototype, in early cycles with limited functionality,
which is evaluated if more functionality is needed, another
cycle starts. See Figure 7. Note that the prototype may very
well be thrown away after each cycle, and a new prototype
developed until the final loop where the final product or
system is created. That is the Spiral model is not necessary
incremental.
The type of prototype to be developed of course depends
on the specific system, but can include:

Illustrative user interface a stupid user interface is

implemented and used for further dialog with the
customer.

Functional prototype an operational system with

minimum functionality is implemented.

Exploratory prototype (hacking) a part of the

system is implemented to gain knowledge about the
requirements.

The major difference between the evolutionary models and

the previously described sequential and incremental models
is that in evolutionary models all requirements of the final
system or product are not known when the development
starts. Initially the requirements are partly defined and then
refined and extended with each successive (internal) release
as the requirements picture mature and until a satisfactory
solution is reached. See Figure 6.
Component Test

Implementation
&
Code Test

Detailed Design

Architecture Design

Verification Test

Validation Test

Requirements Definition
&
Detailed Planning

Requirements Analysis

Figure 6. A cyclic approach for stepwise refinement.

Figure 7. A detailed example of the Spiral Model with four

cycles.

4.2 Advantages and Disadvantages

The most commonly known evolutionary model is probably

the Spiral model defined by Barry Boehm [2], which
describes a model where a prototype is refined to a product
or system in a series of cycles.

The evolutionary models advantage is that it reduces the

risks if too high a risk is found, you can terminate the
development, and it will have cost less than with other
development models. Furthermore, the development can be
terminated after any loop, and there will still be a working
system.

The governing idea is that each cycle starts with risk

evaluation, and not until the risk is resolved does the cycle
continue with implementation and testing. (These tasks can
very we ll be carried out with any development model, for

The evolutionary models disadvantage is that it is

complicated [5]. It is difficult to plan and follow up and it
might not be worth the effort using it if the development is
manageable enough, with low risks.

4.1 The Spiral Model

Another disadvantage is that the architecture of the first

version of the system must support the changes introduced
in each cycle. Otherwise you will have to redesign your
system completely, however the experience of earlier cycles
is very valuable input when doing this.

5. RELATED ASPECTS OF SOFTWARE

ENGINEERING
Within Software Engineering, many research fields are
strongly related. In this section we will briefly present a
couple of recent trends and one good practice, and give
examples on their relationship to the above described
development lifecycle models. The point here is that a
development lifecycle model has to be combined with other
methods and principles to cover all aspects of software
engineering. Our choice of subjects is due to our own
research interests.

5.1 Component-Based Software Engineering

One recent trend in software development is componentbased software engineering (CBSE) [9]. This research field
addresses problems arising with todays large and complex
systems. The key observation is that it is practically
impossible for any company to build a large enterprise
software system entirely by itself. A design of one system
is likely to include specifications of comp onents
implemented in other systems, thus being potential
candidates of reuse.
The advantages of reusing software are obvious. If it is
possible to find and use a software component that fulfils
the requirements at hand, it will in general be cheaper and
include more functionality than an in-house component
would; furthermore its quality is known and it is immediately
available. In some areas there are already today products
and well-developed standards that make the use of such a
component an obvious choice (this is the case e.g. with
operating systems or databases).
However, the CBSE community pictures a future component
market embracing many more types of products. There will
be accepted standards, and a variety of commercially
available components conforming to this standard, each
with competitive advantages.
This scenario affects the software development in two major
ways:
(1) System development will tend towards assembling
pre-existing components, and
(2) There will be a market for developing standard
components.
The development of components will be a process where
the requirements are well specified in the standard, and of
course any development model and method can be chosen.

Component
Construction

Requirements
Definition
Architectur
Design

Certification
Marketing

Component
Requirements
Componenet
Selection

Component
Integration
Verification
(Integration)
Test
Validation
(Acceptance)
Test

Figure 8. A waterfall sequential representation of the main

tasks in CBSE.
The CBSE community therefore pictures a development
process where you either are a System Assembler the
former implementation task will then be replaced by an
assembly task, or you are a Component Developer, and
the former requirements task will partly be stated by the
standards. Each of these development lines can use any
development lifecycle model.
In Figure 8, a waterfall sequential representation of the main
tasks in CBSE is sketched. The System Assembling line
starts at the top left, and the Component Development
line starts at the top right. The ellipse denotes the
component marketplace, where these lines meet.

5.2 Architecture Tradeoff Analysis

The notion of Software Architecture appeared in the
nineties as a separate field of Computer Science [1] [6]. The
research in this field has given birth to formal approaches to
high-level (architectural) design, but has also affected
development methodologies.
In 1998, the Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method
(ATAM) was first described [3]. This informal analysis
method introduces iterations between the requirements
specification and architectural design tasks, see Figure 9. It
focuses on so -called non-functional properties of software,
and describes how scenarios affect these. A software
development team will thus give a higher attention to nonfunctional properties when the requirements specification
task is re-entered; the ATAM is explicitly said to have
both social and technical aspects [3]. This means for
example that the members of a software project will give
higher attention to non-functional properties and how these
are affected by the architectural design.

The number of iterations needed to solve a problem cannot

be planned in advance. Neither can an iteration be planned
in time or scope. It is not feasible to say that analysis of an
unsolved problem will take two days, and then the design
will take three days, the implementation three more days and
then test two days. This type of planning can only be done
if the solution to the problem is known in advance. What
can be said is for example that a problem has to be solved
within a certain timeframe, or else the plan will slip.

Figure 9. The iterative approach of ATAM.

For our purpose, we can also note that future changes of a
system are anticipated already during the requirements
specification and architectural design, given that the
change scenarios used are representative of actual future
change scenarios. We have said that continuous changes
during the development may be one problem with
development lifecycle models, so if such changes are
anticipated, with ATAM the development will run more
smoothly.
We can summarize the impact the ATAM has on
development lifecycle models as follows:
(1) There are iterations between the requirements
analysis and architectural design tasks.
(2) The members of a development team will focus on
non-functional properties to a higher degree.
(3) Future changes are anticipated, making any
development lifecycle model run more smoothly.

5.3 The Iterative Development Method

So what about iterative development then? This is today
regarded to be a best practice in software development [4].
Yes, iterative development is a good practice but it is a
development method and not a (part of a) development
lifecycle model. The iterative development method is often
combined wit h incremental development lifecycle model, but
it is important to differ between the two. Iterative
development is the principle of refining and reworking
software components over time, while incremental
development is the principle of working on one part of the
problem during one pass of the development. Iterative
development can be combined with any of the three types
of development lifecycle models described above, and all
development lifecycle models can be applied without using
the iterative method.

The Quality-Attribute Based Architecting process

description (see Figure 10) is one typical example when the
iterative method is applicable. This process description fits
into the architectural design task in any of the development
lifecycle models described above. It should be observed
that our point here is not the details of this particular
process, but that it is iterative. It is iterative in that a number
of activities are re-entered until a solution is found, and the
process can be used inside one task of any lifecycle model
(in this particular case, inside the architectural design task).
That is, even a sequential lifecycle model can be combined
with an iterative way of working.
Requirements
Specification

Requirements
Selection

(Partial)
Architecture
Specification

Architecture
Transformation

Functionallity
Based
Architectural
Design

No

Functional Req.
(Partial)
Requirements
Specification

Yes

QA optimizing
Solutions

Quality
Attributes
Estimation

Quality
Attributes
OK?
Yes

Quality Req.

More
Requirements?

No

Architecture
Specification

Figure 10. An example of the iterative method: The

Quality-Attribute Based Architecting Process.

6. DISCUSSION
We have discussed software development lifecycle models
and looked a possible way to classify them. We described
the development lifecycle models as sequential on one
hand, evolutionary on the other hand, and incremental
models as something in between.
We also elaborated the difference between the terms
incremental and iterative development, which are often used
interchangeably. An incremental development approach
decomposes the work to be done in smaller manageable
parts and affects the whole development lifecycle (spanning
months or even years), while iterative development should
be seen as a working method (spanning days or weeks)
where (a piece of) the software is improved and enhanced
successively.

Finally, we have scrutinized two recent trends, the design

and development of Software Architecture through the
ATAM, and Component-Based Software Engineering. We
found that the ATAM method is not a complete
development method or lifecycle models in itself, but
complements other development methods and lifecycle
models. Neither is Component-Based Software Engineering
pictured in the paper; instead it also adds another
dimension to the field.

6.1 Contribution
The paper is biased towards an audience consisting of
students in computer science and engineering. This in mind,
we have presented an overview of three types of software
development lifecycles in an organized form, emphasizing
their major differences, as well as their relationships.

claiming to be the best. This paper has only presented a

brief overview.
In industry today, the described lifecycle models are used,
but often much more detailed than described in this paper,
often somewhat altered, and often not fully understood and
thus used improperly. Since the development lifecycle
models and development methodologies are complicated
and there are no absolute standards, successful software
development still relies heavily on individual developers
experience. Quality software can only be achieved the hard
way, i.e. through careful consideration of all aspects
regarding software engineering. Software development
organizations of today have to mature in this area and to
start to take these issues seriously.

Furthermore, we related two new research trends,

architectural analysis and component-based software
engineering, to the established software lifecycle models.

There are indeed University courses teaching Software

Engineering exp licitly, including software lifecycle models,
and in some other courses the assignments are complex
enough to force the students to consider engineering
issues. Knowledge of the available development
methodologies and lifecycle models are essential to a
computer science student.

6.2 Related Work

6.5 Acknowledgements

The lifecycle models described are often referred to as

common practice, the exception being the Spiral Model,
which was invented by Boehm [2]. There are however a
number of overviews: Sommerville surveys the field of
Software Engineering, including a classification of lifecycle
models [7], slightly different than ours. McConnell provides
a good overview over software lifecycle models and related
areas, including many good practices [5].

We owe credit to Kurt Wallnau and Judith Stafford at the

Software Engineering Institute for the ideas to Figure 8 and
Figure 10, and to Stig Larsson at ABB for his valuable
comments on the contents of this paper.

We also presented a definition of what we believe is the

distinction between incremental and iterative development.

The Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) [8] is

a process description for software development, defining a
detailed lifecycle model. Rational Unified Process (RUP) [4]
builds on the same type of process description as DSDM,
but is more widely known and spread.
The notion of Software Architecture has been explored by
Bass et al [1] and by Garlan and Shaw [6]. The ATAM was
described by Kazman et al [3]. Szyperski [9] defines and
describes Component-Based Software Engineering.

6.3 Future Work

The software community is today too immature to be able to
come to a consensus about how the lifecycle of software
development should be described. Thus, the software
community still faces a major task in standardizing the
terminology,
the
lifecycle
models,
development
methodologies, and not least to make the knowledge widely
spread and used and taught.

6.4 Conclusion
There are a great number of development lifecycle models
and methodologies around, each of them more or less

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[1] Len Bass, Paul Clements, Rick Kazman Software
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Institute, 2000
[3] Rick Kazman, Mark Klein, Mario Barbacci, Tom
Longstaff, Howard Lipson, Jeromy Carriere, The
Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method, Proceedings of
the Fourt h IEEE International Conference on
Engineering of Complex Computer Systems (ICECCS),
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