Difference between Predictive Development and Adaptive Development

In this article, we will explore the difference between predictive development and adaptive development, but let us first discuss the meaning of predictive development and adaptive development.

Predictive Development

Predictive development is a methodology used to create a software development project that focuses on planning and analyzing everything related to the project at a very early stage. The main aspect of this method is that the scope of the project and the deliverables are very well-defined. It predicts the future need of the customers and the risk that may cause the problem, then accordingly designs a strategy to complete the project. If any change is made during the planning of the project, then it can be easily managed, but if the same change is brought later in the project, it may cost more, and the plan needs to be made again from starting and sometimes fail to handle the change. It focuses on completing the project on time without any delay.

Predictive development is also called waterfall methodology, which is a sequential method that follows five steps for producing the project, which are analysis, design, implementation, verification, and maintenance.

Primarily, predictive development predicts scope, schedule, and cost before executing the project. After that, the project team will put all the effort into making sure that the plan is executed properly.

Adaptive Development

Adaptive development is a methodology used to create a software development project that focuses on delivering small pieces of the project, called increments. It follows all the steps that predictive development does, but it delivers small pieces to the customer, takes feedback from the customer, goes back, starts over, and delivers another piece of the project. It adapts to changes as it starts everything again to deliver the next iteration, from planning to providing the next piece to the customer.

Adaptive development, also called agile methodology, focuses on providing valuable increments to customers as quickly as possible. It does not make the customer wait until the end of the entire project, but it delivers the project in small pieces, takes customer feedback, and, if required, works on the project again, then delivers the next iteration. Since all the steps and activities like planning, designing, implementing, iteration, and reviewing are repeated many times, the changes can be easily adapted in the next iteration without disturbing the workflow.

The key differences between predictive development and adaptive development

Predictive Development	Adaptive Development
It is a methodology that focuses on planning the entire project based on predictions of future risk and customer needs.	It is a methodology that focuses on planning one or two iterations.
It believes in predicting future requirements and works accordingly.	It recognizes that there can be uncertainties and changes, then work accordingly.
It follows a fixed plan. It follows a flexible plan.
If something goes wrong and changes need to be made, it becomes difficult to adapt to change.	If something goes wrong and changes need to be made, it is easy to accommodate the change.
It requires more cost and effort to adopt the change as they had already planned for the entire project, and due to the change, the entire planning has to be redone.	It does not require much cost as they plan for a few iterations rather than the entire project. Plus, they've considered the worst-case scenario, so the change does not affect their progress.
They deliver the project to the customer after completing the entire project and then take feedback from the customer.	They deliver the project to the customer after completing each iteration and take feedback from the customer after each iteration.
They have limited feedback from the customer.	It focuses on continuous feedback from the customer and makes adjustments.
It acknowledges risk while planning the entire project but avoids risk while executing the plan.	It acknowledges risk after each iteration and manages the risk in the next iterations.
It adheres to fixed deadlines and timelines.	It adheres to flexible timelines based on customer feedback.
It focuses on attaining predictive results.	It focuses on attaining results that are responsive to change.
It is a rigid development method because the next task is activated only after completing the previous tasks.	It is a flexible development method because tasks do not necessarily depend on others.
It is a good approach for projects that have regular standards and no scope for change.	It can easily handle the scope of changes in the project.
It is suitable for projects that the team is familiar with and has worked on similar projects before.	The team doesn't need to be familiar with the projects.

Conclusion:

You have studied the difference between predictive development and adaptive development in this article. We have concluded that predictive development is the methodology that analyzes and plans the entire project before execution and finally delivers the project to the customer after completing the entire project. On the other hand, we have concluded that adaptive development is the methodology that plans a few iterations and delivers to the customer after each piece is completed.

The main difference between predictive development and adaptive development is that predictive development cannot accommodate change easily, and sometimes they fail to handle change. In contrast, adaptive development is more welcoming of changes.

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