Planning/Analysis Stage:

This stage involves researching and mapping out the most suitable technology and the most cost-effective development process that aligns with both your short-term and long-term project goals. This is crucial for the success of your software or business.

Designing Stage:

In this pivotal stage, your product undergoes transformation into visual designs by talented UI/UX designers. The envisioned designs are then prototyped, providing a tangible and interactive representation of your product's user interface and experience. This step allows for further refinement and ensures alignment with the desired end-user interaction

Development Stage:

This stage involves the transformation of UI designs into a software product. A solution architect creates the basic structure of the project, which is then handed over to the developers. These developers convert the UI designs into functional software code

Testing/Quality Assurance Stage:

In this stage, the developers pass the project to the quality assurance testers. Their role is to test the product and ensure that it functions as expected.

Deployment Stage:

Once the product has been validated by quality assurance, it is deployed on an online server and made available for users.

Understanding the development cycle is the core of software development methodologies, A methodologies consist of one or more development cycle Below are the list Software methodologies

Waterfall Model:

In the Waterfall methodology, developers complete one stage entirely before moving on to the next, A approach where progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards from planning phase to deployment

1. When to use: Ideal for well-defined projects with fixed requirements.
2. Considerations: May not be suitable for projects where changes are expected or frequent client feedback is necessary as the waterfall model rarely provide rooms for iteration

Agile Model:

Agile is a set of principles that developers can apply to their decision-making process during software development. It involves breaking down a project into manageable steps, developing and delivering software incrementally, working on parts within short time frames, and maintaining constant interaction and feedback with the client

1. When to use: Ideal for well-defined projects with fixed requirements.
2. Considerations: Best for dynamic projects but may require a more engaged and collaborative team.

Scrum:

An Agile framework that divides the development process into fixed-length which could be around 2 to 4 weeks iterations called sprints.at the end of each development process product are shown to stakeholders feedback are implemented and the iteration continues, It involves a cross-functional team working collaboratively to deliver a potentially shippable product at the end of each sprint.

1. When to use: Great for complex projects requiring frequent iterations and close collaboration.
2. Considerations: Requires a dedicated Scrum Master and may not be suitable for small teams.

Kanban:

A visual management method designed to help visualize work, limit work-in-progress, and maximize flow. It is often used in conjunction with Agile and Lean methodologies.

1. When to use: Effective for ongoing maintenance, support, or projects with continuous flow
2. Considerations: Offers flexibility but may not provide the same level of structure as Scrum.

Feature Driven Development (FDD):

FDD is a model-driven, short-iteration process that was built around software engineering best practices such as domain object modeling, developing by feature, and code ownership

1. When to use: is a good choice for big projects with lots of features and different teams. It works well when you know exactly what you want to build, and you want to organize the work in a systematic way.
2. Considerations: FDD relies on having a clear idea of what features you want. Make sure your project has well-defined features to make FDD effective..

DevOps:

This methodology aims to foster collaboration between the traditionally separate development(Dev) and operations teams(Op) throughout the software development life cycle. Tools like CI/CD pipeline are introduce which allows changes to be deployed

1. When to use: Suitable for projects with a focus on collaboration between development and operations
2. Considerations: Emphasizes automation and may require a cultural shift within the organization.