Waterfall & Whirlpool Development Models

Describe, compare and contrast the 'Waterfall' and 'Whirlpool' software development models.

The Waterfall development model is a popular software development model originally designed for manufacturing and construction but has been adapated for software development. The Waterfall model operates in a squence of events/steps which must be completed before moving on the the next step. Like a waterfall it is all down hill.

The original model had 7 steps where the adapted Waterfall now only has 5 steps which are;

1. Requirements
2. Design
3. Implementation
4. Verification
   
5. Maintenance

The waterfall development model povides a structured and easy to follow method for designers to follow. This is important as it is easily understood by everyone working on a project, it also makes it easier to set deadlines for tasks to be completed by a certain date.


The Whirlpool software development model or more commonly known as the spiral development model. The model incorparates both designing and prototyping software, the model overcomes some of the drawbacks with the waterfall method as it allows those using the spiral model to go back and reevaluate, redesign and change things in a cycle unlike the waterfall method. Going in a cycle allows the software, product, thing to be improved everytime the cycle goes round ultimatly improving the product.

There are 4 steps in the spiral development model these are

1. Determine objective
2. Identify and resolve risk
3. Development and test
4. Plan

The spiral model recognizes the benefit of rapid prototyping, wherein the "bottom-up" people gain insight at a rapid rate that the "top-down" people can learn from. Thus a cycle of continuously improving the design requirements becomes possible during the design itself. It is thought to allow a more optimal final design, based on the notion that there are no suitable experts that can write the requirements at the start of a design exercise that will lead the team to an optimal design.



Describe how the 'whirlpool' SPIRAL software development model can be applied to web page design.

The spiral development can be applied to web page design by first designing a webpage, once it has been designed the spiral cycle allows the design team to go back and find out what the users require or fix any problems which have occoured, this can be a proccess over every couple of months. By doing this it keeps the user intrested and users expectations. the web page can change like to keep with the times and keeping constant traffic to the webpage while also improving everytime.