Software Process

In software engineering, a software development methodology (also known as a

1. system development methodology,
2. software development life cycle,
3. software development process,
4. software process

is a splitting of software development work into distinct phases (or stages) containing activities with the intent of better planning and management. It is often considered a subset of the systems development life cycle. The methodology may include the pre-definition of specific deliverables and artifacts that are created and completed by a project team to develop or maintain an application
Common methodologies include

1. waterfall,
2. prototyping,
3. iterative development,
4. spiral development,
5. rapid application development,
6. extreme programming and
7. continuous integration.

Some people consider a project life-cycle model a more general term for a category of methodologies and a software development "process" a more specific term to refer to a specific process chosen by a specific organization. For example, there are many specific software development processes that fit the spiral life-cycle model.