Adaptive Software Development Methodologies and Design Approaches for Online Book Ordering System

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PART A
Question 1 Essay
Introduction
The essence of this report is feedback to the manager who wanted a system analyst to shade
more light on agile or adaptive software development methodologies. The report discusses
adaptive software development and introduces the various methodologies related to it. It further
expounds on scrum and extreme programming agile methodology giving a recommendation to
Pty Ltd on the methodology that is best suited for the implementation of Pty Ltd new online
oredering information system.
Adaptive software development methodology
Adaptive software development methodologies as the name suggests is change adhering in
nature, in that, they accommodate the software’s requirements as the development process
progresses (Highsmith, 2013). Adaptive software methodologies offer a window for
incrementing features or functions of the software that were initially left out or whose
significance was realized in the various releases made by the development team. For instance in
the schools supply Pty Ltd information system, the need to implement the stock control, quick
books interconnection and online payment for books may arise later during development or after
a release. Adaptive software development methodology will make sure, these functions are
incrementally accommodated in the new information system for Pty Limited.
Advantages of adaptive software development methodology
It is simple, to develop software using adaptive software development methodology, the team of
developers start developing the software using the available requirements specified.
Compatibility, its adaptive nature makes it compatible to new requirements and technologies.
The team of developers will always implement the user stories they get from the stakeholders
and users after the release.

Disadvantages of adaptive software development methodology
It is expensive to implement the new information system for Pty Limited using adaptive software
development methodology because it requires a team of developers that are highly skilled.
There is no proper design, requirement specification and documentation when developing
software using adaptive software development methodology. This is difficult for a team of
developers to complete a project that they did not start because of lack of proper documentation.
Indefinite scope, the end of the development of the new Pty information system is not
established. This is because requirements for the information system will keep evolving.
Types of adaptive software development methodologies
There are many adaptive software development methodologies; Scrum, Extreme programming,
Unified process and Rational unified Process. Pty Ltd should focus on two of the most
commonly used agile software development methodology Scrum and Extreme programming in
order to produce software of good quality.
Scrum Adaptive software development methodology
Scrum is an agile software development methodology that is based on iterative, incremental
sprints (Dingsøyr et.al 2012). The sprints are the modules implemented to form the whole
project. Therefore, the whole development process of the new information system for Pty Ltd is
divided into sprints. Sprints in the new Pty Ltd information system will be; the online ordering
system, stock control and the online payment module. Before each sprint, there is sprint planning
where, the team of developers meet to set the goals and objectives for the development of the
sprint. After the sprint is developed the team of developers meet for the sprint review where, the
achievements of the sprint are cross checked with the objectives set during the sprint planning
session. At this point is when the scrum master presents the release to the stakeholders. There is
also a sprint retrospective that helps to identify the flaws experienced in that sprint and how to
avoid such in the next sprint.

Circumstances under which scrum is used
When the team of experts developing the new Pty Ltd software is geographically located at one
place.
When there is no external module that the new Pty Ltd ne information system is dependent on
(Dingsøyr et.al 2012). This is because the outsourced module’s delivery may delay, delaying the
whole development process.
Advantages of Scrum
Using Scrum to develop the new information system for Pty Ltd will be fast and easy due to the
division of the whole software into sprints which take less time to implement.
The daily scrum meeting where the progress of each expert in the development team is checked
ensures that every expert is responsible and accountable throughout the development process.
Scrum adheres to change by implementing the evolving requirements for the new information
system for Pty Ltd.
Disadvantages of Scrum
The implementation of the new Pty Ltd information system using scrum will be time consuming
because the scope of the system will not be definite (Devedzic, 2011).
Scrum requires a team of highly skilled developers to implement the new information system for
Pty Ltd
Extreme programming
Extreme programming is an agile software development methodology that utilizes the agility of
adaptive methodologies and majors on coding rather than the design part which is considered by
many as the backbone of software (Devedzic, 2011). As the name suggests Extreme
programming revolves around coding and testing of the code. With extreme programming, the