waterfall model

The waterfall model is a sequential software development model in which work flows through phases such as requirements analysis, design, implementation, testing, and deployment and maintenance, with each phase finished before the next begins. The name reflects the way progress cascades downward from one phase to the next.

Its origin is commonly traced to a 1970 paper by Winston W. Royce that described a sequential development process. Because returning to an earlier phase is difficult once requirements change, it is often contrasted with agile methods, which build and revise software in short iterations.

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