Enterprise Resource Planing(ERP) Benefits and Solutions

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A true Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system integrates both internal and external information flows used by the organization within a single, comprehensive solution. An ERP solution incorporates the practical systems used by organizations to manage the basic commercial functions of their business, such as: planning, inventory/materials management, purchasing, manufacturing, finance, accounting, human resources, marketing and sales, services etc. The objective of the ERP solution is to drive the flow of information between all internal business functions while managing connections, or "touchpoints," to outside stakeholders.
ERP solutions run on a variety of computer hardware and network configurations, including "on premises" (i.e. client/server) or hosted (i.e. "cloud-based" or Software as a Service).
Regardless of the configuration, typically ERP solutions use a common database to hold information from the various business functions that's accessible in some form or another by various users. The use of an integrated database to manage the solution's multi-module application framework within a common information system is one of the primary ERP benefits of this kind of system over "point solutions."
Unlike point solutions (historically used by small to midsize businesses) that rely on multiple (sometimes duplicating) databases which strain IT resources, ERP solutions standardize the use of one application to run an entire business. This not only increases efficiencies, but also decreases the overall total cost of ownership (TCO), thereby reducing operational costs and improving the company's profitability.

Scalability: An ERP system is easily scalable. That means adding new functionality to the system as the business needs change is easy. This could mean easy management of new processes, departments, and more.

Improved reporting: Much of the inefficiency in operational work stems from improper reporting. With an ERP system, this possibility is eliminated as reporting follows an automated template system, allowing various departments to access informat

ion seamlessly.

Data quality: As compared with manual record-keeping or other traditional approaches, an ERP system improves data quality by improving the underlying processes. As a result, better business decisions can be reached.

Lower cost of operations: An ERP system introduces fundamental innovations in managing resources, which eliminates delays and thus reduces cost of operations. For instance, use of mobility allows real-time collection of data, which is indispensable to lowering costs.

Better CRM: A direct benefit of using a good ERP system is improved customer relations as a result of better business processes.

Business analytics: Having high-quality data allows businesses to use the power of intelligent analytics tools to arrive at better business decisions. In fact, many good ERP systems have built-in analytics functionality to allow easier data analysis.

Improved data access: Controlling data access properly is always a challenge in organizations. With an ERP system, this challenge is overcome with the use of advanced user management and access control.

Better supply chain: Having the right ERP system in place means improved procurement, inventory, demand forecasting, etc., essentially improving the entire supply chain and making it more responsive.

Regulatory compliance: Having the system in control means organizations can better comply with regulations. Further, the most important and recurring regulatory requirements can be built right into the system.

Reduced complexity: Perhaps the most elegant argument in the favor of ERP systems is that they reduce the complexity of a business and introduce a neatly designed system of workflows. This makes the entire human resource chain more efficient.

There are many more benefits of an ERP system, but these are the chief ones. Needless to say, a good ERP system is indispensable in the modern economic scenario.

Additional ERP Benefits:

Tighter controls for financial compliance declaration (e.g. Sarbanes-Oxley and Basel II) as well as other forms of compliance reporting.
The single data source for product and services information - such as information related to suppliers, vendors, customer orders and the products themselves - drive rapid product development and launch cycles which increases a company's overall market share.
Increased access to valuable corporate data delivers a clear, global view of the business that drives continuous improvement strategies and establishes common performance metrics and measures to gauge the health of the business.
Effectively managing projects holistically fosters decision making at critical levels in the development and/or manufacturing process.
Support for streamlined sourcing and procurement processes drive alignment to customer demands, and also deliver a centralized buying model to reduce unauthorized and unnecessary expenses.
Providing sales and operations planning with access to critical information fosters "closed loop" processes that ensures the business does not overpromise and/or underdeliver to customers.
Automating business processes such as invoicing and sales and purchase orders within one systems improves forecasting accuracy and reduces inefficiencies.
Using a single base of information for billing and other customer interactions improves service levels and increases customer retention.

Reaping ERP Benefits: Implementing the Right Solution

ERP solutions are continually refined and updated. With the myriad of different systems that are available today, it's critical for organizations who are considering an ERP system for the first time or migrating to an alternative ERP solution to partner with a company that first assesses their needs and helps them identify the system that will support their business objectives. Equally, if not most important, is to work with a company that defines and integrates an ERP solution that seamlessly supports their business processes.
Since ERP solutions are the operational backbone of a growing or established organization, it's necessary to partner with a company that understands your business, can improve the quality and efficiency of your organization, and delivers a solution that will ultimately save time and expense.  

Vertical Solutions: Retail Supplier Solutions (RSS)

Green Beacon’s “Retail Supplier Solutions” module makes Microsoft Dynamics® AX the premiere ERP solution catered specifically to Retail Suppliers.

RSS enables your company to streamline the supplier-retailer relationship with the use of one seamless platform — all powered by Microsoft Dynamics® AX.

Making use of Big Data, our program planning and execution enhancement system provides the ideal launchpad for harnessing customer centric capabilities with efficient automation processes and optimization.

As a Microsoft Dynamics® Gold Certified Partner, we provide a fully integrated set of tools such as shelf-aware, pre-season and in-season demand planning, data visualization, supply chain execution and remittance management.

Retailers are asking for more from suppliers, Green Beacon is providing the tools to meet and exceed those demands.

Types of ERP

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As your business grows, the right software package to keep track of inventory, shipments and accounting will keep you efficient and profitable. Enterprise resource planning programs have traditionally been used by the big players in the market that have thousands of employees spread out over the world. However, software developers are now marketing ERP systems to small- and medium-sized companies.

Industry Specific ERP

ERP systems for large corporations are often built from the ground up to suit the organization's specific and unique needs. For a small business like yours, an off-the-shelf model will work fine. Most are grouped into three categories to service manufacturing, finance or logistics based companies.

Web-Based ERP

ERP programs tend to be complex, requiring high-end computers to run them. However, instead of purchasing the software to run on your computer in your office, many suppliers offer Software as a Service, or SaaS. In this case, you pay a subscription to access the software and your data over the internet. Because the program is running on a remote server, you are free to access it from anywhere you have an Internet connection.

Small Business ERP

Although ERP systems can cover everything from supply chain management to accounting solutions as well as customer relations management, your business may not need to automate all these functions. Therefore, software developers offer scaled-down models at a lower, more cost-effective price. For instance, your operation may work fine with a system that offers sales and order management, but leaves out the module for warehouse management.

6 Phases of website Development

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Phase One: Information Gathering

The first step in designing a successful website is to gather information. Many things need to be taken into consideration when we design the look and feel of your site, so we first ask a lot of questions to help us understand your business and your needs in a web site.

Certain things to consider are:

Purpose
What is the purpose of the site? Do you want to provide information, promote a service, sell a product… ?

Goals
What do you hope to accomplish by building this website? Two of the more common goals are either to make money or share information.

Target Audience
Is there a specific group of people that will help you reach your goals? It is helpful to picture the “ideal” person you want to visit your website. Consider their age, sex or interests – this will help us determine the best design style for your site.

Content
What kind of information will the target audience be looking for on your site? Are they looking for specific information, a particular product or service…?

Phase Two: Planning

Using the information gathered from phase one, we put together a plan for your web site.

Here we develop a site map – a list of all main topic areas of the site, as well as sub-topics (if applicable). This gives us a guide as to what content will be on the site, and is essential to developing a consistent, easy to understand navigational system. This is also the point where we decide what technologies should be implemented – interactive forms, CMS (content management system) such as WordPress, etc.

Phase Three: Design

Drawing from the information gathered up to this point, we determine the look and feel of the site. Target audience is one of the key factors taken into consideration here. A site aimed at teenagers, for example, will look much different than one meant for a financial institution. We also incorporate elements such as the company logo or colors to help strengthen the identity of your company on the web site.

Once we’ve designed a prototype, you are given access to the Client Studio, which is a secure area of our web site. The Client Studio allows you to view your project throughout the design and development stages. Most importantly, it gives you the opportunity to express your likes and dislikes on the site design.

In this phase, communication is crucial to ensure that the final web site will match your needs and taste. We work together in this way, exchanging ideas, until we arrive at the final design for the site. Then  website development can begin…

Phase Four: Development

This is where the website development begins. We take all of the individual graphic elements from the prototype and use them to create the functional web site. We also take your content and distribute it throughout the site, in the appropriate areas.

This entire time, you will continue to be able to view your site in the Client Studio, and suggest any additional changes or corrections you would like to have done.

Phase Five: Testing and Delivery

At this point, we attend to the final details and test your web site. We test things such as the complete functionality of forms or other scripts, we test for last minute compatibility issues (viewing differences between different web browsers), ensuring that the site is optimized to be viewed properly in the most recent browser versions.

Once we receive your final approval, it is time to deliver the site. We upload the files to your server – in most cases, this also involves installing and configuring WordPress, along with a core set of essential plugins to help enhance the site. Here we quickly test again to make sure that all files have been uploaded correctly, and that the site continues to be fully functional. This marks the official launch of your site, as it is now view able to the public.

Phase Six: Maintenance

The website development is not necessarily over, though. One way to bring repeat visitors to your site is to offer new content or products on a regular basis. If this interests you, we will be more than happy to continue working together with you to update the information on your web site. We offer maintenance packages at reduced rates, based on how often you anticipate making changes or additions to your site.

Software release Life Cycle

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A software release life cycle is the sum of the stages of software development and maturity for a piece of computer software: ranging from its initial development to its eventual release, and including updated versions of the released version to help improve software or fix bugs still present in the software.

Stages of Development

Pre-alpha

Pre-alpha refers to all activities performed during the software project before testing. These activities can include requirements analysis, software design, software development, and unit testing. In typical open source development, there are several types of pre-alpha versions. Milestone versions include specific sets of functions and are released as soon as the functionality is complete.

Alpha

The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first phase to begin software testing (alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet, used as the number 1). In this phase, developers generally test the software using white-box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black-box or gray-box techniques, by another testing team. Moving to black-box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release.

Alpha software can be unstable and could cause crashes or data loss. In general, external availability of alpha software is uncommon in proprietary software development. However, open source software often has publicly available alpha versions, often distributed as the raw source code of the software and sometimes along with pre-compiled binaries. The alpha phase usually ends with a feature freeze, indicating that no more features will be added to the software. At this time, the software is said to be feature complete.

Beta

"Beta Test" redirects here. For the upcoming film, see Beta Test (film).

Beta, named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet, is the software development phase following alpha. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues and may still cause crashes or data loss. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it.

The users of a beta version are called beta testers. They are usually customers or prospective customers of the organization that develops the software, willing to test the software, often without charge, and often receiving the final software free of charge or for a reduced price. Beta version software is often useful for demonstrations and previews within an organization and to prospective customers. Some developers refer to this stage as a preview, prototype, technical preview / technology preview (TP), or early access. Some software is kept in perpetual beta—where new features and functionality are continually added to the software without establishing a firm "final" release.

Open and Closed Beta

Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a restricted group of individuals for a user test by invitation, while open beta testers are from a larger group, or anyone interested. The testers report any bugs that they find, and sometimes suggest additional features they think should be available in the final version. Examples of a major public beta test are:

In September 2000 a boxed version of Apple's Mac OS X Public Beta operating system was released.

Microsoft's release of community technology previews (CTPs) for Windows Vista, between September 2005 and May 2006.

Throughout 2009 to 2011, Minecraft was in public beta. Minecraft itself went through phases named "Alpha" and "Beta" but the entire software development process leading to its launch can be classified as such.[citation needed]

On December 29, 2014, all owners of Halo: The Master Chief Collection for the Xbox One were able to download and play the Beta of Halo 5: Guardians for free through January 18, 2015. Users of the Beta were reminded via in-game popup that the release was a Beta and may contain some glitches and were encouraged to communicate them through the Halo series online community.

Open betas serve the dual purpose of demonstrating a product to potential consumers, and testing among an extremely wide user base likely to bring to light obscure errors that a much smaller testing team might not find.

Release Candidate

A release candidate (RC) is a beta version with potential to be a final product, which is ready to release unless significant bugs emerge. In this stage of product stabilization, all product features have been designed, coded and tested through one or more beta cycles with no known showstopper-class bug. A release is called code complete when the  software development team agrees that no entirely new source code will be added to this release. There could still be source code changes to fix defects, changes to documentation and data files, and peripheral code for test cases or utilities. Beta testers, if privately selected, will often be credited for using the release candidate as though it were a finished product. Beta testing is conducted in a client's or customer's location and to test the software from a user's perspective.

Kinds of Web Pages and difference between them.

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Static Website

A static website (sometimes called a flat page/stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user exactly as stored, in contrast to dynamic web pages which are generated by a web application.

Consequently a static website displays the same information for all users, from all contexts, subject to modern capabilities of a web server to negotiate content-type or language of the document where such versions are available and the server is configured to do so.

Static website are often HTML documents stored as files in the file system and made available by the web server over HTTP (nevertheless URLs ending with ".html" are not always static). However, loose interpretations of the term could include web pages stored in a database, and could even include pages formatted using a template and served through an application server, as long as the page served is unchanging and presented essentially as stored.

Static websites are suitable for the contents that never or rarely need to be updated. However, maintaining large numbers of static pages as files can be impractical without automated tools. Any personalization or interactivity has to run client-side, which is restricting.

Advantages of static website:

1. Quick to develop
2. Cheap to develop
3. Cheap to host

Disadvantages of static website:

1. Requires web development expertise to update site
2. Site not as useful for the user
3. Content can get stagnant

Dynamic Website

A server-side dynamic website is a web page whose construction is controlled by an application server processing server-side scripts. In server-side scripting, parameters determine how the assembly of every new web page proceeds, including the setting up of more client-side processing.

A client-side dynamic website processes the web page using HTML scripting running in the browser as it loads. JavaScript and other scripting languages determine the way the HTML in the received page is parsed into the Document Object Model, or DOM, that represents the loaded web page. The same client-side techniques can then dynamically update or change the DOM in the same way.

A dynamic website is then reloaded by the user or by a computer program to change some variable content. The updating information could come from the server, or from changes made to that page's DOM. This may or may not truncate the browsing history or create a saved version to go back to, but a dynamic website update using Ajax technologies will neither create a page to go back to, nor truncate the web browsing history forward of the displayed page. Using Ajax technologies the end user gets one dynamic website managed as a single page in the web browser while the actual web content rendered on that page can vary. The Ajax engine sits only on the browser requesting parts of its DOM, the DOM, for its client, from an application server.

DHTML is the umbrella term for technologies and methods used to create web pages that are not static web pages. Client-side-scripting, server-side scripting, or a combination these make for the dynamic web experience in a browser.

Difference between Static and Dynamic Websites

There are many static websites on the Internet, you won’t be able to tell immediately if it is static, but the chances are, if the site looks basic and is for a smaller company, and simply delivers information without any bells and whistles, it could be a static website. Static websites can only really be updated by someone with a knowledge of website development. Static websites are the cheapest to develop and host, and many smaller companies still use these to get a web presence

ERP softwares

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An enterprise resource planning system helps organizations track information across all departments and business functions, from accounting to human resources to sales and beyond. The term took root in the U.S. around 1990 as a growing number of organizations required integration outside of—but not exclusive of—their manufacturing applications. They needed to share data from their MRP system with say, their financial accounting, customer relationship, supply chain or other applications. Enterprise planning software was introduced to describe a broader system that integrated each of these applications. The top ERP software packages will cover the following application categories.


Common Features of ERP Software
1. Accounting -   Accounting systems help organizations manage their financial transactions. At its core, it will have a general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable and payroll. Vendors often develop additional features and functionality to meet unique business and industry needs (e.g., Sage Nonprofit with fund accounting). Example vendors include Sage accounting software and Microsoft Dynamics.
2. Business intelligence -  Business intelligence, as a term, gained widespread adoption in the late '90’s. However, the technology has existed in some shape or form since the '60’s. It is used to analyze and report business data to help companies make smarter business decisions. Core functions include analytics, data mining, reporting and more. An example vendor is SAP.
3.Customer relationship management-  A CRM application is used to manage interactions with prospects, customers, clients and/or partners. It tracks activity across all departments: marketing, sales and service. Core applications closely align with these departments. They include sales force automation, marketing automation and service and support. CRM aims to increase customers, revenue and customer satisfaction. An example vendors is Oracle.
4. Human resources- Modern HR systems help organizations manage traditional HR activities such as personnel tracking and benefits administration, as well as new strategic HR initiatives like talent management, employee evaluation and learning management. Example vendors include Epicor and Lawson software.
5. Inventory management- An inventory management program helps companies track up-to-date information about their product supply. Its aim is to maintain optimum stock levels so that companies avoid depreciation of inventory and overspending, and ultimately maximize profits. There are different types of inventory programs to meet the unique requirements of different industries and companies. For example, a food distributor will have different inventory management needs than say, an apparel retailer. Sample products include MAS 90 and 200 Software.
6. Manufacturing-  We wouldn’t have enterprise resource software if it wasn’t for manufacturing resource planning software. Today, it’s at the core of many well-known ERP systems. Other manufacturing applications and/or modules include manufacturing execution systems (MES), bill of materials (BOM), product lifecycle management and more. Example vendors include NetSuite, Infor and Sage.
7.Supply chain management- The supply chain management (SCM) application tracks goods as they move from manufacturing facilities to distribution centers to retail stores. Common applications include: supply chain planning to adjust inventory as demand changes; supplier management to monitor performance of suppliers; warehouse management to track placement of goods within a warehouse, and others.

What Type of Buyer Are You?

Before evaluating options and performing an ERP software comparison, you’ll need to determine what type of buyer you are. Over 90 percent of buyers fall into one of these three groups:

Enterprise resource planning systems buyer. These buyers require integration of data across all departments. They want to have everything in one system and avoid the technical challenges of integrating disparate applications. These buyers favor complete ERP solutions like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, Infor, Epicor, Oracle and others.

Best-of-breed buyers. These buyers require a single component like a standalone CRM system or a HR system. They often need greater functionality and more features than what is offered in an integrated suite. Because of the functional depth these buyers require, it's important that they spend time evaluating reviews for specialized systems instead of integrated suites.

Small business buyers. A year ago analysts predicted that the average company would have 18 employees before adopting an ERP system. Five years ago the average number was 29. Statistics aside, more and more small businesses want to leverage ERP technology for better business performance. In the past, high upfront costs and technical challenges kept many small businesses out of the market. But with a growing number of cloud options, small business buyers have a new opportunity to implement enterprise-level technology. Of course there are still on-premise or client/server options still available for small businesses.

Market Trends to Understand

There are several trends playing out in the market. ERP software vendors are consolidating, adoption of SaaS is growing, and more. Here we’ll highlight a few you should know about.

Vendor consolidation. The consolidation of ERP products isn’t necessarily a new trend. Mergers and acquisitions have always been a part of this market's history. However, the rate at which it’s taking place and the implications it has for buyers are worth mentioning. Large vendors continue to acquire niche vendors to round out their product lines, acquire excellent technology or to expand into new geographic markets. Buyers need to consider this when evaluating systems. In a worst-case scenario, their provider gets acquired, the product gets sunsetted and support and updates are no longer available. Avoid this situation by considering a vendor’s financial and strategic viability.

Adoption of software as a service. SaaS or Web-based ERP is an appealing alternative to traditional on-premise systems. The initial investment is lower, the implementation can be quicker, the user interface is familiar (it runs in a Web browser), and companies don’t need full-time IT staff to maintain servers and hardware. Most ERP vendors now offer—or have plans to offer—some kind of Web-based option.

Mobile app development. Vendors have responded to rapid growth in smartphone adoption by developing mobile interfaces for their ERP software systems. For example, Oracle already has a mobile client, so do SAP and Epicor.

Social media integration. Although very much in its infancy, many ERP companies are developing social media tools to keep abreast of the bigger trend playing out. Internal tools are being developed to foster greater collaboration among employees, while integration betwen ERP programs and outside networks such as Facebook and Twitter is also taking place.

Software Developement Process

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In software engineering, a software development methodology (also known as a system development methodology, software development life cycle, software development process, software process) is a division of software development work into distinct phases (or stages) containing activities with the intent of better planning and management. It is often considered a subset of the systems development life cycle. The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific deliverables and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application.

Common methodologies include waterfall, prototyping, iterative and incremental development, spiral development, rapid application development, extreme programming and agile methodology. Some people consider a life-cycle "model" a more general term for a category of methodologies and a software development "process" a more specific term to refer to a specific process chosen by a specific organization. For example, there are many specific software development processes that fit the spiral life-cycle model.

Approaches:-

Several software development approaches have been used since the origin of information technology, in two main categories. Typically an approach or a combination of approaches is chosen by management or a development team.

"Traditional" methodologies such as waterfall that have distinct phases are sometimes known as software development life cycle (SDLC) methodologies, though this term could also be used more generally to refer to any methodology. A "life cycle" approach with distinct phases is in contrast to Agile approaches which define a process of iteration, but where design, construction, and deployment of different pieces can occur simultaneously.

Waterfall development

The activities of the software development process represented in the waterfall model. There are several other models to represent this process.
The waterfall model is a sequential development approach, in which development is seen as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through several phases, typically:

1. Requirements analysis resulting in a software requirements specification
2. Software design
3. Implementation
4. Testing
5. Integration, if there are multiple subsystems
6. Deployment (or Installation)
7. Maintenance

The first formal description of the method is often cited as an article published by Winston W. Royce in 1970 although Royce did not use the term "waterfall" in this article. The basic principles are

1. Project is divided into sequential phases, with some overlap and splashback acceptable between phases.
2. Emphasis is on planning, time schedules, target dates, budgets and implementation of an entire system at one time.
3. Tight control is maintained over the life of the project via extensive written documentation, formal reviews, and approval/signoff by the user and information technology management occurring at the end of most phases before beginning the next phase.

The waterfall model is a traditional engineering approach applied to software engineering. A strict waterfall approach discourages revisiting and revising any prior phase once it is complete. This "inflexibility" in a pure waterfall model has been a source of criticism by supporters of other more "flexible" models. It has been widely blamed for several large-scale government projects running over budget, over time and sometimes failing to deliver on requirements due to the Big Design Up Front approach. Except when contractually required, the waterfall model has been largely superseded by more flexible and versatile methodologies developed specifically for software development. See Criticism of Waterfall model.

The waterfall model is also commonly taught with the mnemonic A Dance in the Dark Every Monday, representing Analysis, Design, Implementation, Testing, Documentation and Execution, and Maintenance.

Prototyping

Software prototyping, is the development approach of activities during software development, the creation of prototypes, i.e., incomplete versions of the software program being developed.

The basic principles are:

1. Not a standalone, complete development methodology, but rather an approach to handle selected parts of a larger, more traditional development methodology (i.e. incremental, spiral, or rapid application development (RAD)).
2. Attempts to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process.
3. User is involved throughout the development process, which increases the likelihood of user acceptance of the final implementation.
4. Small-scale mock-ups of the system are developed following an iterative modification process until the prototype evolves to meet the users’ requirements.
5. While most prototypes are developed with the expectation that they will be discarded, it is possible in some cases to evolve from prototype to working system.
6. A basic understanding of the fundamental business problem is necessary to avoid solving the wrong problems.

Incremental development

Various methods are acceptable for combining linear and iterative software development methodologies, with the primary objective of each being to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process.

The basic principles are:

1. A series of mini-Waterfalls are performed, where all phases of the Waterfall are completed for a small part of a system, before proceeding to the next increment, or
2. Overall requirements are defined before proceeding to evolutionary, mini-Waterfall development of individual increments of a system, or
3. The initial software concept, requirements analysis, and design of architecture and system core are defined via Waterfall, followed by iterative Prototyping, which culminates in installing the final prototype, a working system
.

Iterative and incremental development

Main article: Iterative and incremental development
Iterative development prescribes the construction of initially small but ever-larger portions of a software project to help all those involved to uncover important issues early before problems or faulty assumptions can lead to disaster.

Spiral development

Spiral model (Boehm, 1988)

In 1988, Barry Boehm published a formal software development "spiral model," which combines some key aspect of the waterfall model and rapid prototyping methodologies, in an effort to combine advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts. It provided emphasis in a key area many felt had been neglected by other methodologies: deliberate iterative risk analysis, particularly suited to large-scale complex systems.

The basic principles are:

1. Focus is on risk assessment and on minimizing project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process, as well as providing the opportunity to evaluate risks and weigh consideration of project continuation throughout the life cycle.
2. "Each cycle involves a progression through the same sequence of steps, for each part of the product and for each of its levels of elaboration, from an overall concept-of-operation document down to the coding of each individual program."
3. Each trip around the spiral traverses four basic quadrants: determine objectives, alternatives, and constraints of the iteration;  evaluate alternatives; Identify and resolve risks;  develop and verify deliverables from the iteration; and  plan the next iteration.
4. Begin each cycle with an identification of stakeholders and their "win conditions", and end each cycle with review and commitment.

Rapid application development

Rapid Application Development (RAD) Model
Rapid application development (RAD) is a software development methodology, which favors iterative development and the rapid construction of prototypes instead of large amounts of up-front planning. The "planning" of software developed using RAD is interleaved with writing the software itself. The lack of extensive pre-planning generally allows software to be written much faster, and makes it easier to change requirements.

The rapid development process starts with the development of preliminary data models and business process models using structured techniques. In the next stage, requirements are verified using prototyping, eventually to refine the data and process models. These stages are repeated iteratively; further development results in "a combined business requirements and technical design statement to be used for constructing new systems".

The term was first used to describe a software development process introduced by James Martin in 1991. According to Whitten (2003), it is a merger of various structured techniques, especially data-driven Information Engineering, with prototyping techniques to accelerate software systems development.

The basic principles of rapid application development are:

1. Key objective is for fast development and delivery of a high quality system at a relatively low investment cost.
2. Attempts to reduce inherent project risk by breaking a project into smaller segments and providing more ease-of-change during the development process.
3. Aims to produce high quality systems quickly, primarily via iterative Prototyping (at any stage of development), active user involvement, and computerized development tools. These tools may include Graphical User Interface (GUI) builders, Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) tools, Database Management Systems (DBMS), fourth-generation programming languages, code generators, and object-oriented techniques.
4. Key emphasis is on fulfilling the business need, while technological or engineering excellence is of lesser importance.
5. Project control involves prioritizing development and defining delivery deadlines or “timeboxes”. If the project starts to slip, emphasis is on reducing requirements to fit the timebox, not in increasing the deadline.
6. Generally includes joint application design (JAD), where users are intensely involved in system design, via consensus building in either structured workshops, or electronically facilitated interaction.
Active user involvement is imperative.
7. Iteratively produces production software, as opposed to a throwaway prototype.
8. Produces documentation necessary to facilitate future development and maintenance.
9. Standard systems analysis and design methods can be fitted into this framework.

Agile development

"Agile software development" refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve via collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams. The term was coined in the year 2001 when the Agile Manifesto was formulated.

Agile software development uses iterative development as a basis but advocates a lighter and more people-centric viewpoint than traditional approaches. Agile processes fundamentally incorporate iteration and the continuous feedback that it provides to successively refine and deliver a software system.

There are many variations of agile processes:

1. Dynamic systems development method (DSDM)
2. Kanban
3. Scrum
4. Code and fix
5. Main article: Cowboy coding
"Code and fix" development is not so much a deliberate strategy as an artifact of naïveté and schedule pressure on software developers. Without much of a design in the way, programmers immediately begin producing code. At some point, testing begins (often late in the development cycle), and the unavoidable bugs must then be fixed before the product can be shipped. Programming without a planned-out design is also known as cowboy coding.

Lightweight methodologies

A lightweight methodology has a small number of rules. Some of these methodologies are also considered "agile".

Adaptive Software Development by Jim Highsmith, described in his 1999 book Adaptive Software Development
Crystal Clear family of methodologies with Alistair Cockburn,
Extreme Programming (XP), promoted by people such as Kent Beck and Martin Fowler. In extreme programming, the phases are carried out in extremely small (or "continuous") steps compared to the older, "batch" processes. The (intentionally incomplete) first pass through the steps might take a day or a week, rather than the months or years of each complete step in the Waterfall model. First, one writes automated tests, to provide concrete goals for  software development. Next is coding (by programmers working in pairs, a technique known as "pair programming"), which is complete when all the tests pass, and the programmers can't think of any more tests that are needed. Design and architecture emerge from refactoring, and come after coding. The same people who do the coding do design. (Only the last feature — merging design and code — is common to all the other agile processes.) The incomplete but functional system is deployed or demonstrated for (some subset of) the users (at least one of which is on the development team). At this point, the practitioners start again on writing tests for the next most important part of the system.
Feature Driven Development (FDD) developed (1999) by Jeff De Luca and Peter Coad
ICONIX - UML-based object modeling with use cases, a lightweight precursor to the Rational Unified Process
Other high-level software project methodologies include:

Chaos model - The main rule is always resolve the most important issue first.
Incremental funding methodology - an iterative approach
Structured systems analysis and design method - a specific version of waterfall
Slow programming, as part of the larger Slow Movement, emphasizes careful and gradual work without (or minimal) time pressures. Slow programming aims to avoid bugs and overly quick release schedules.
V-Model (software development) - an extension of the waterfall model
Unified Process (UP) is an iterative software development methodology framework, based on Unified Modeling Language (UML). UP organizes the development of software into four phases, each consisting of one or more executable iterations of the software at that stage of development: inception, elaboration, construction, and guidelines. Many tools and products exist to facilitate UP implementation. One of the more popular versions of UP is the Rational Unified Process (RUP).