Hey, remember last week we talked about some types of software development processes? Well, today we will focus on one of them: the waterfall method. If you don´t remember or don´t know about it, here´s a quick glance.
Okay simple…what about it?
Well, the thing is that this waterfall method, this simple method may very well be like the father of all the others. If you really think about it, makes a lot of sense. Just imagine yourself some decades ago, when there were no methods and software developments just kept growing and growing. When you´re the first one you need to heavily base on something that already exists, well this is that prototype.
I mentioned it was the most straightforward, because it is, just read it from top to bottom and it´s a normal process. But straightforward doesn´t always mean simple, those steps can have more depth than you think, let´s break them down.
1.- Requirements: Well, this is simple, right? Just make an analysis of what platforms you need, and some technical stuff. WRONG! while it may be a big part of it, it´s not even the most important, remember you are working with
2.- Design: Ok, this is also simple, just a little bit of temawork will solve it, right? WRONG AGAIN!!! the mere act of designing involves a lot of parts each with their own complications. Some obvious like analyzing and scheming(which I think is one of the most difficult parts), making the architecture if your program is big enough. And coding, which may seem simple but remember you´re working with people here, and not everyone codes in the same way, but you need to understand them all. They say 85% of a programmer´s time is spent understanding someone else´s code.
Already feeling heavy? Well, I´m sorry to break it to you but in an ideal waterfall work, this should only take about 20%-40% of your time…Yeah, that little.
3.- Implementation: I can hear you asking “What is it now?” well, this one is actually quite simple…yeah, really. Because you have already made the code, is just a matter of putting it in the compiler and maybe doing some small changes if it is cross-platform.
4.- Verification: This is also quite long and intense, it involves testing, which is a whole topic on itself. Maybe we´ll discuss it later.
So yeah, this part was simpler because you already had a strong foundation, this should also take around 20%-40% of your time.
5.- Maintenance: This part is really easy on paper, the thing with this is that although maybe you want to keep updates simple, it´s for a long time and as you get more jobs(´cause I know you will, I believe in you) are more updates to be made somewhat regularly.
That is why the last part may take up anywhere from 20%-60% of the time. And just imagine it if it were the spiral method uuughh.
Some boring stuff that you will probably forget
It´s invention is attributed to Herbert D. Benington in 1956 although the first time it was officially introduced was with Winston Royce in 1970.
It is considered one of the basic processes, along with the spiral method and the prototyping, because a lot(if not most) of the other processes can be seen as “Waterfall tweeked out”.
Conclusion
So, I wanted to write something super cool here, but I couldn´t think of anything. So instead of that I´ll leave you with a picture of the misol-ha waterfalls in Chiapas(you should go there, it´s beautiful).
Photo taken from the Secretaría de Turismo de Chiapas.
