A development methodology is the structured approach a team uses to plan, build, test, and deliver software — the process, roles, and cadence (from Waterfall to Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and domain-driven design) that turn requirements into working, maintainable systems.
Development Methodology
Development Methodology is the structured approach a team uses to plan, build, test, and deliver software. It defines the process, roles, and cadence that turn requirements into working systems — everything from sequential Waterfall to iterative Agile practices like Scrum and Kanban, and modeling approaches like domain-driven design. The methodology a team chooses shapes how quickly it can respond to change and how maintainable its output stays over time.
- Waterfall - A linear, phase-gated process where requirements, design, build, and test happen in sequence.
- Agile, Scrum, and Kanban - Iterative, feedback-driven approaches that deliver working software in short cycles and adapt as they learn.
- Domain-driven design - Organizes software around the business domain and its language, aligning models with real-world concepts.
- Process artifacts - Backlogs, sprints, reviews, and retrospectives give a methodology its rhythm and make progress visible.
In API work, the development methodology decides whether a contract is designed up front or discovered by writing code, how often versions ship, and how tightly design, governance, and delivery are coupled. Design-first and lifecycle-driven methodologies pair naturally with Design Standards and DevOps practice, giving a team a repeatable path from an API’s specification to a governed, deployed, and agent-ready service.
Referenced on the API Evangelist blog
Where this standard shows up across sixteen years of my writing at apievangelist.com — how it fits into API design, governance, and the agentic turn.
