The following phases of software development are shared by the majority of approaches:

The software development life cycle, or SDLC, is the term frequently used to refer to all of these phases. Various software development methodologies may perform these phases in varying sequences or allocate varying amounts of time to each step. Each software development step may provide documentation with varying levels of complexity. Additionally, these steps can be completed sequentially (a "waterfall" based technique) or repeatedly over a number of cycles or iterations (a more "extreme" approach). The more drastic method typically entails spending more time developing automated tests and coding and less time on planning and documentation.

• Analyzing the Problem.
• Market Research.
• Gathering requirements for the proposed software
• Devising a plan or design for the software
• Implementation (coding) of the software
• Testing the Software
• Deployment & Maintenance plus bug fixing

Extreme methods also encourage constant testing during the development process and always have a functional (or error-free) product. In order to prevent substantial design changes and re-coding in later stages of the software development life-cycle planning, more organized or "waterfall" based approaches try to evaluate the majority of risks and create a thorough strategy for the product before implementation (coding) starts.

The various approaches have substantial benefits and drawbacks, and the optimum software-based problem-solving strategy will frequently vary depending on the nature of the issue. The more "waterfall" oriented method might be the most effective if the problem is well understood and the work can be efficiently planned out in advance. On the other hand, a more "extreme" incremental approach might be more effective if the challenge is unique (at least to the development team) and the software's structure is difficult to imagine.