A Survey of Major Software Design Methodologies

A methodology can be simply defined as a set of procedure that one follows from the beginning to the completion of the software development process. The nature of the methodology is dependent on a number of factors, including the software development en vironment, the organization's practices, the nature or type of the software being developed, the requirements of the users, the qualification and training of the software development team, the available hardware and software resources, the availability o f existing design modules, and even the budget and the time schedule. Since the 1970s, there have been a proliferation of software design methodologies. Different methodologies have been developed to resolve different types of problems. In describing these problems, it is often possible or necessary to group problems with similar characteristics together. This is called the problem domain. Many of these methodologies have evolved from the specific milieu where the software was developed. By this it is meant that specific methodologies are often developed (to be applied) to resolve certain "classes" of problems, also called domain of application, for which it is well-suited. Even though the design mechanics are different in each methodology .