The common metaphor for building software systems has traditionally been the construction industry. People knew a lot about constructing buildings. They had been doing it successfully for thousands of years. Anything bigger than a simple shed required a complete blueprint before a single shovelful of earth was turned or a single nail was driven. The implementation of the construction metaphor in the software industry was the waterfall methodology. The waterfall approach called for a complete and detailed documentation of system requirements, followed by a set of program designs and specifications from which programs were written. When all the programs were written, they would be tested. The final product would then be turned over to the customer. However, in the 1980s industry experts began to see a trend – software projects were failing more often than they were succeeding. While the development tools, languages, and technologies were getting better, most of our projects were not seeing the promised benefits. Software systems took too long to build, cost too much money, and did not deliver what the customer needed. Read more. (http://tech.lds.org/index.php?option=com_content task=view id=367 Itemid=1)
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