While Agile methodologies have captured the attention of the software development industry, it was the traditional approach of the Waterfall methodology that was indicated as being the most commonly used.

Over the past five years, the Planit Testing Index has reported the rapid growth in the popularity of Agile. In 2010, when asking respondents to indicate all methodologies used, Agile proved to be most popular with 48.1 percent of organisations having adopted it for at least some of their development activity. This figure has continued to grow over the past 12 months, reaching 61.8 percent.

Despite its popularity, Agile and RAD methodologies are yet to unseat the Waterfall methodology as that which is most commonly used across all projects.

Planit Testing Index 2011: Project Methodologies

In an effort to better understand the prevalence of these methodologies, this year we asked respondents to report on what portion of their software development projects followed each methodology.

Agile’s popularity did not translate directly into the quantity of overall projects utilising the methodology, as it was used in only 28 percent of projects referenced in 2011 Index. The more traditional Waterfall model, which promotes a sequential development process, revealed itself to be the dominant methodology, with implementation across 36 percent of projects.

While Agile may not be best practice in all software development projects, it demonstrates numerous critical benefits. The heightened buy-in, collaboration and team work involved in Agile projects can boost productivity and efficiency, not to mention the fact that working software can be delivered to the client far earlier.