Popular web development approaches

Developing web applications is rather a complex job involving amalgamation of number of advanced technologies for meeting the ever increasing demand of the users. Following a systematic approach is the bottom line for developing a successful project of web applications. The most popular approaches (models) followed in the present times are detailed hereunder, to give you affair idea about each of them.

Waterfall model: The oldest and well know model which requires that each phase is taken up in a sequential manner and is more than often used in providing useful web solutions . The model is seen as flowing down steadily, just like a waterfall, through its different phases of origin, commencement, Analysis, Designing, building, Testing, installation and Maintenance. The process involves spending more time on requirements and design and hence, gives the advantage of saving on time and effort in the later stages. The model has however, been criticized for inflexibility, as this model discourages revisiting or revising of any prior completed phase.

Spiral model: The ideal characteristic of this model is risk management at regular stages. The model combines some aspects of the rapid prototyping model and the waterfall model by giving priority to deliberate iterative risk analysis. The spiral model is mostly used in large projects being developed by a software development company. In this model different elements of the product are allowed to be added once they are available and hence, rules out the possibility of any conflict with previous requirements and design. The model is not suitable for small scale software development as it at times requires more money to fix the issues based on the extensive risk analysis, and can hit the profits of the project. For the spiral model to work it is essential to actively locate the possible risks and analyze them with utmost accuracy.

Agile development: This model is based on the principle of iterative and incremental development where requirements and solutions are evolved through teamwork. Its iterative approach encourages rapid and flexible response to change. Agile model is preferred in providing web solutions as it is more feedback centric rather than planning. It is also weighted above other models for its ability to break tasks into small iterations and help do programming in a considerably less time. This also minimizes the overall risk and the project quickly adapts to changing needs.

Extreme programming: is a methodology which is proposed for improving software quality and responsiveness as per the varying requirements of the customer. As a type of agile development process it supports frequent releases of short development cycles, with the intent to improve productivity and introduce checkpoints where new requirements of the customer s can be adopted. Some other important elements of this programming include pair programming, extensive code review, and unit testing of the entire code, flat management structure, simplicity and clarity.

Rapid Application development: is a methodology which involves methods like iterative development and software prototyping. It in fact is a combination of various structured techniques, which are used to define users' requirements and for designing the final system.

Every Software development company has a wide range of models, to select from, to modernize its development process of Web applications. Each model has its own pros and cons and its selection would be at the sole discretion of the development company aiming at providing the best web solutions to its customers. It is worth mentioning that sometimes a combination of the models listed above may be more suitable.