A Descriptive/Comparative Study of the Evolution of Process Models of Software Development Life Cycles (PM-SDLCs)

A relevant knowledge [24] (and consequently research area) is the study of software lifecycle process models (PM-SDLCs). Such process models have been defined in three abstraction levels: (i) full organizational software lifecycles process models (e.g. ISO 12207, ISO 15504, CMMI/SW); (ii) lifecycles frameworks models (e.g. waterfall, spiral, RAD, and others) and (iii) detailed software development life cycles process (e.g. unified process, TSP, MBASE, and others). This paper focuses on (ii) and (iii) levels and reports the results of a descriptive/comparative study of 13 PM-SDLCs that permits a plausible explanation of their evolution in terms of common, distinctive, and unique elements as well as of the specification rigor and agility attributes. For it, a conceptual research approach and a software process lifecycle meta-model are used. Findings from the conceptual analysis are reported. Paper ends with the description of research limitations and recommendations for further research.