SPIRAL MODEL

The spiral model is a software development process combining elements of both design and prototyping-in-stages, in an effort to combine advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts. Spiral model is one of the software development lifecycle models. It is very easy to understand both the developers and customers and react the risk at each eliminatory level it uses reduction of the mechanism. It is divided into no of frame work activates. It is called as spiral model.
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES: ADVANTAGES: 1. Estimates (i.e. budget, schedule, etc.) become more realistic as work progresses, because important issues are discovered earlier. 2. It is more able to cope with the (nearly inevitable) changes that software development generally entails. 3. Software engineers (who can get restless with protracted design processes) can get their hands in and start working on a project earlier. DISADVANTAGES: 1. Highly customized limiting re-usability 2. Applied differently for each application 3. Risk of not meeting budget or schedule 4. Risk of not meeting budget or schedule USE: The spiral model is mostly used in large projects. For smaller projects, the concept of agile software development is becoming a viable alternative. The US military had adopted the spiral model for its Future program. The spiral model thus may suit small (up to $3 million) software applications and not a complicated ($3 billion) distributed, interoperable, system of systems. Also it is reasonable to use the spiral model in projects where business goals are unstable but the architecture must be realized well enough to provide high loading and stress ability. For example, the Spiral Architecture Driven Development is the spiral based Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) which shows one possible way how to reduce the risk of non-effective architecture with the help of a spiral model in conjunction with the best practices from other models.

EXPLAIN WITH EXAMPLE:

Template Objectives

Explanation

Example Phase

The goals of the software Significantly improve software quality project Limitations which the project must meet Within three years Without large-scale capital investment Without radical change to company standards

Constraints

Alternatives

Reuse existing certified software Possible ways to achieve Introduce formal specification and verification the objectives Invest in testing and validation tools Potential risks for this phase No cost effective quality improvement possible Quality improvements may increase costs excessively New methods might cause existing staff to leave

Risks Risk Resolution Results

Strategies for reducing the Literature survey, Pilot project, Survey of potential reusable components, Assessment risks of available tool support, Staff training and motivation seminars Results of applying risk resolution strategies Experience of formal methods is limited - very hard to quantify improvements Limited tool support available for company standard development system Reusable components available but little reuse tool support

Plans

Explore reuse option in more detail Development plans for the Develop prototype reuse support tools next phase Explore component certification scheme Resources needed to achieve the plans Fund further 18-month study phase

Commitment

Spiral Model Template

In the example above, software company A has the objective of significantly improving the quality of their software. In order to meet this goal, the company evaluates three alternatives and three risks. One of the alternatives is the use of formal specification and verification. This alternative, however, may incur the risk of causing existing staff to leave since they prefer to use more familiar methods of software development. To resolve this risk, staff training and motivation seminars are conducted to show the benefits of these new methods and determine the current level of expertise in formal methods. As a result, Company A discovers that the staffs know very little about these methods. Therefore, it is difficult to estimate what type of benefit the company might receive from using this alternative to meet its objective. Since this option seems too risky, the plans for the next phase focus on another alternative that is more promising: the reuse of software components.