Applying the spiral model: A case study in small project management

Abstract

The need for new development processes becomes apparent as the complexity and cost of developing software systems increase. Many processes have evolved that attempt to improve upon the weaknesses of the traditional waterfall model. One such process is Barry Boehm's spiral model of software development. This risk-driven process uses prototyping and customer evaluation to address problems associated with defining system requirements and incorporating improved design alternatives. This paper describes an application of the spiral model used by a team of software engineering graduate students at Texas Christian University (TCU). The team used this process as part of a two semester software engineering course in which a communications simulator was built. As previous discussions of spiral model implementations have focused on large projects, this discussion will focus on applying the model in a small project setting and will offer refinements to the model at large. This paper discusses methods for handling product specifications and milestones in the spiral model and discusses why and how the model was used. Difficulties with applying the spiral model are presented along with conclusions drawn from the experience. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Gauthier-Villars