Waterfall, RUP and Agile: Which is Right for You?

Despite signs of life in the economy, the realities of software development persist. Most companies and customers need their software yesterday with the most advanced features at the lowest possible cost. To accomplish these seemingly contradictory goals, developers seek to streamline production with fast, effective processes that can give the customer what he/she wants in the shortest time possible.

These realities and past development failures have led to a shift in software development thinking from the more structured, sequential methods of software development of the past, often called the Waterfall model, to more iterative and incremental models such as the "Rational Unified Process (RUP)" and "Agile."

The article Waterfall, RUP and Agile: Which is Right for You? explains how to streamline production with fast, effective Waterfall, RUP and Agile processes, and how to use mixed software development strategies to meet specific project needs.