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What's the difference between process models and approaches. In Ian Sommerville's Software Engineering book, Software processes categorized in to Plan-Driven and Agile. Then he talks about 3 models, Waterfall, Incremental and Reuse-oriented. Then he talk about Rational unified process and then it comes a topic about Boehm spiral model. Is this Boehm spiral model a another type of software process model as Waterfall, Incremental and Reuse-oriented?

Then in Agile software development, he's talking about RAD (Rapid Application Development) is this also a process model? Can we categorize software process models in to the 2 processes (i.e Plan driven and agile)?

prabushitha
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    You might get a better answer if you repost your question here: http://programmers.stackexchange.com/ It's all about conceptual questions related to programming. Your question is probably too broad to be answered here. You can cross-link your existing login with a single click – Craig Estey Dec 06 '15 at 06:49
  • @CraigEstey when referring other sites, it is often helpful to point that [cross-posting is frowned upon](http://meta.stackexchange.com/tags/cross-posting/info) – gnat Dec 06 '15 at 08:45
  • @gnat I didn't say _crosspost_ but repost [implying migration], but, AFAICT, OP doesn't have enough points to migrate [would have to cut-n-paste, post on other, then delete]. The _crosslink_ was about the fact that that once you have a login on an SO site, you can cross-link it in other sites. That is, join another site from an existing login id with a single click instead of reentering your info [something a one point OP is unlikely to know--the ease of doing so would encourage him to do so]. I've seen plenty of others comment similarly. – Craig Estey Dec 06 '15 at 20:52
  • @gnat Wanted to advise OP before question got closed/downvoted as off topic, opinion based, etc. by heavy handed moderation that provides no alternate site info. I've seen that too [all too frequently, IMO]. Also, the question here is in the gray area. Appropriate here _and_ there. OPs often post a question on SO, get [several] answers, ask new question as followup on different page [because the 2nd is really a different one], and put links in each page to each other. I don't see how doing that cross-site would be any different – Craig Estey Dec 06 '15 at 21:02

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A process or method, in this context, is a set of steps that produce a software product.

A process model is a generic description of a category of processes.

So, waterfall, incremental, and reuse-oriented are all categories of processes. There are potentially several processes that fall into each category.

A spiral model is another category, which is generally concerned with managing certain developmental risks. Barry Boehm was the first author who described a spiral model (and he described it as a "process model") and his description is labelled as Boehm's Spiral Model by subsequent authors.

In practice, there is nothing stopping someone from developing a process that draws features from a number of process models. It is then a bit of a philosophical (sometimes almost religious) discussion as to whether such a process fits into multiple categories, or in its own category.

RAD is also described as a process model, although the term is sometimes (e.g. by James Martin) applied to particular processes. So, depending on who you ask, RAD is either a particular development process or a category of development process.

Some authors do use the terms "process" and "process model" interchangeably (RAD being either a process or a process model, depending on who you ask, is an example) which muddies the water even further.

Peter
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  • Thank you peter for the clarification. SE concepts are bit confusing. If you can, please explain me how these terms (Question in the below link) related with each other? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/34126181/connection-between-processes-process-models-methodologies-requirement-enginee thanks – prabushitha Dec 07 '15 at 05:42