Web systems are deployed not in the nine to eighteen month cycles of the Mainframe era, nor in the three to nine month cycles of the Client/Server era, but now take place in a mere 30 to 90 days!
Many of the characteristics of both the Waterfall method and the Iterative methods are not possible in sub-90 day projects. The days when gathering requirements took three months are now replaced with an economy that demands web solutions be delivered—from start to finish—in only three months!
The new web economy has provided web developers with tools allowing them to react more quickly and accurately to new requirements and a changing business environment. Gone are the days when you have to schedule to install software on an end user’s PC and take a week or two to get feedback. Web developers quickly whip together a web page, review it with an end user, and start to work on its back-end code all within the span of a few hours, thanks to web browsers and Internet collaboration.
Just as web developers have quickly adapted to the new economy, web project leaders have found new project management techniques are needed to facilitate delivering web projects on time and on budget in short 30 to 90 day life cycles.