4.4Software Development Management (Agile, DevOps/CI-CD, Estimation, Configuration Management)

Software-development-management questions split into two broad types: judging which development model fits a given situation, and computing/tracing estimation and configuration-management procedures. The key to scoring is understanding the differing assumptions behind waterfall and agile (are requirements settled, or is change assumed?) for the former, and precisely grasping the calculation logic of the function point method and COCOMO for the latter. This section proceeds from development models through estimation to configuration management, following the flow of real-world decision-making.

4.4.1Development models (waterfall, agile)

• The waterfall model progresses requirements -> design -> implementation -> testing strictly downstream, in principle without going back. It suits large systems where requirements are settled early and change little. The spiral model repeats design, implementation, and evaluation accompanied by risk analysis, progressively refining a prototype through iterations.
• Agile development is an umbrella term for development models that repeat planning, design, implementation, and testing in short cycles (iterations/sprints), emphasizing early and continuous delivery of working software. It assumes requirements will change and welcomes responding to change, in contrast to waterfall.
• Scrum assigns roles — a product owner (prioritizing requirements and managing the product backlog), a Scrum master (supporting the team and smoothing the process), and a development team — and implements sprint backlog items within fixed-length sprints (typically 1-4 weeks). It has recurring events: a daily scrum (a short daily progress sync), a sprint review (demoing and reviewing the increment), and a sprint retrospective (reflecting on the process).
• XP (Extreme Programming) is an agile method built on practices such as test-driven development (TDD) (writing test code before the implementation), pair programming (two developers sharing one workstation, implementing and reviewing simultaneously), refactoring (improving internal structure without changing externally observed behavior), and continuous integration.