Understanding different methodologies in product development

There are several ways in which a product can be made. Some of those most prominent methods are waterfall, agile and lean.

Waterfall

This process is also called sequential design process which has a number of stages to go through concept, plan, construction, testing, implementation and finally the product is deployed. No changes can be made at any stage once a step has been completed and sent to the second stage. Also if any step goes wrong, the whole process is affected and for improving it, the process is started from the very beginning.

This process is time consuming also.

With disadvantages, there are some advantages also of following waterfall methodology. This process always has some kind of documentation in it for keeping a record of what’s happening currently to what final product is going to be. Also with this basic process, the client has an idea of size, cost and timeline for the project.

Agile

For simplifying the design process, another methodology has been introduced called Agile/Scrum methodology.

This process carries less risk than a traditional waterfall methodology. In this, the product is divided into parts and then each part is developed one by one which makes it less risky as each part is fully tested, independent having small features. This process allows the developer to make changes in the product as the processing time is shortened in it and also instant feedback are being given for it.

But final review in this process is done only after the whole product is completed. Also as the project initially doesn’t have a definitive plan, the final product can be different than what was initially intended.

Lean

So, taking disadvantages of the above methodologies, Lean methodology has been introduced.

This technique focuses on processes and managing the efficiency of product developed.

The result being an improved quality of product with minimum wastage. This process works as an equal relationship of business source, designer and developer. At each stage feedback is taken from both the parties.

Lean methodology highly focuses on developing a part of product as 1 identity or say finished product and straightly sending it to the market.

This technique of working is normally taken by start-up companies who have a limited amount of assets but high on skills and conceptualization.