What is the Waterfall methodology?

Understanding the philosophy and how it works?

The process is divided into distinct phases where each phase cannot begin unless the previous phase is completed since it also serves as an input for the next phase. Let's understand each of these phases better:

• ** Gather Requirements ** : The requirements must be fully captured and defined through rigorous documentation in the form of an elaborate requirements document.
• ** Design the solution **: The requirements are utilized to design the product that details the functional or system requirements and aids in defining engineering architecture. The requirements and solution may be functionality focused instead of being customer-centric.
• ** Develop the solution **: The scope of work is broken into smaller manageable units and developed independently. Each unit of work is tested to confirm whether the intended functionality has been developed and this is called as Unit Testing
• ** Test the solution **: The units developed and verified in the previous phase are combined or integrated. This integrated system is tested thoroughly for any issues or failures.
• ** Deploy the solution **: Once the product has been exhaustively and comprehensively tested, it is deployed to the production environment for customers to start using it.
• ** Maintenance and support **: When issues arise, they are fixed. Enhancements to the product go through the same process to deliver the changes
  Each phase requires a sign-off from an approver ( for e.g. in the case of Gather Requirements and Design the Solution - it could be the enterprise customer for a B2B2C product) to ensure there is no overlap between phases ( e.g. gather requirements and design the solution).

The waterfall methodology has been adopted by the development and product team based on various factors, which make the linear and sequential process a more appropriate approach:

• Requirements are not ambiguous and fixed.
• Ample resources with the expertise required to develop and launch the project are available for a significant amount of time at the project’s disposal
• Project timeline is short