Waterfall Methodology
- dan sunil kumar
- Jul 24
- 1 min read
The Waterfall methodology is a traditional project management approach where the project flows sequentially through a set of well-defined phases. Each phase must be completed before moving to the next. It’s most commonly used in software development, construction, and manufacturing.
Here are the standard stages of a project in the Waterfall model:
1.
Requirements Gathering and Analysis
Goal: Understand what the customer wants.
Activities:
Stakeholder interviews
Requirement documentation (Business Requirements Document - BRD)
Approvals
Output: A complete list of functional and non-functional requirements.
2.
System Design
Goal: Plan the architecture and design based on requirements.
Activities:
High-level design (HLD): architecture, data flow, system components.
Low-level design (LLD): module-level details, database schema.
Output: Design documents, data models, interface designs.
3.
Implementation (Coding)
Goal: Convert design into working code.
Activities:
Developers write code based on the design specs.
Unit testing is usually done by developers.
Output: Completed software modules.
4.
Integration and Testing
Goal: Verify that the system works as expected.
Activities:
System testing, integration testing, performance testing, etc.
Bug identification and fixes.
Output: Tested software, defect logs, test reports.
5.
Deployment
Goal: Release the finished product to the production environment.
Activities:
Installation and configuration.
Final system check in the live environment.
Output: Deployed software/product.
6.
Maintenance
Goal: Support the product post-deployment.
Activities:
Bug fixes, updates, and enhancements.
Monitoring and performance tuning.
Output: Maintained and updated system over time.
Each stage in the Waterfall model typically has sign-off or approval gates, and there is little room to go back once a stage is completed — which makes it best suited for projects with clear, fixed requirements.
Comments