Overview of Plan Driven Development (PDD)

Different types of software products/services are being developed everyday. IT/Software companies are adopting different development procedures for the development of good quality software product within less time and less budget. There are number of approaches for software development. One of them is Plan Driven Development in short PDD. In this article we will discuss about this Plan Driven Development method. So, let’s start exploring the topic.

Plan Driven Development (PDD):

Plan-driven development is a software development method which attempts to plan and develop all of the features a user might want in the final product and determines how all those features are to be developed. Actually this action plan is based on the execution of an ordered set of task-specific levels.

We can say it is an attitude to software engineering wherever it is planned in feature how the development procedure will take place. It is based on the administration methods of project engineering & an old-style method of handling big software development ventures. It makes the use of management planning unfolds in measuring progress and making project decisions.

Project plans:

A plan-driven development project sets out a program for the project, including the available resources, work breakdowns, work completion schedules etc.

• Organizing the team and roles of different members.
• Risk Analysis and Probabilities, Prospects, Strategies to Arise.
• Hardware as well as software resource requirements.
• Deciding Activities, Deliveries, and Milestones.
• Allotment of people and allocation of their time.
• Monitoring and Reporting systems.

Let’s look at the advantages and disadvantages of plan-driven development.  

There are many advantages and Disadvantages of Plan-Driven Development and a few of the important ones we have discussed here which will help you to understand this topic better.

Advantages of PDD:

• Require knowledgeable personnel at the beginning.
• Appropriate for big software development/extensive systems and sides.
• Grips hazardous systems efficiently.
• Suitable for a stable growth environment.
• Achievement attained through construction and directive.

Disadvantages of PDD:

• Can not lodge changes any time.
• Longer distance in each repetition or increase.
• The shoulder that, future variations will not occur.
• Lack of user participation through the life cycle of the creation.
• Expensive for the dynamic expansion environment.

Other popular software development models:

• Incremental Development
• Prototype Model
• Iterative development
• Rapid Application Development
• Spiral Development
• Software Process Model.

The planning process:

• First project plan takes place although project preparation is an iterative procedure which takes place throughout the development startup stage.  
• As more information is gathered a proper plan takes place which includes plan to reflect supplies, schedule, and risk fluctuations.
• Changing business aims also tips to changes in development plans. As business goals alteration, this could move all projects, which might then must be re-planned.

Agile & Plan driven development:

As we know, in an agile method, several repetition happens across doings. Here, Plan-Driven Development procedure is, not unavoidably waterfall model – Plan-driven, incremental growth, and distribution is likely.

Finally, the advices from the experts about the Plan-driven approach is that planning allows the organizational issues (such as staff availability, other projects, etc.) to be closely taken into account, as well as the potential problems and concerns associated with them, even before the project begins. Dependency discovery checks are performed. Somewhat once the project is proceeding.

One of the biggest concerns with Plan-Driven Development is that many of the initial solutions have to be modified as the environment changes associated with the software in which it is developed and used.