The spiral model is a software development process combining elements of both design and prototyping-in stages, in an effort to combine advantages of top-down and bottom-up concepts.

For a typical shrink-wrap application, the spiral model might mean that you have a rough-cut of user elements (without the polished / pretty graphics) as an operable application, add features in phases, and, at some point, add the final graphics.

The spiral model is used most often in large projects. For smaller projects, the concept of agile software development is becoming a viable alternative. The US military has adopted the spiral model for its Future Combat Systems program.

Advantages

• Estimates (i.e. budget, schedule, etc.) get more realistic as work progresses, because important issues are discovered earlier.
• It is more able to cope with the (nearly inevitable) changes that software development generally entails.
• Software engineers (who can get restless with protracted design processes) can get their hands in and start working on a project earlier

Rapid Application Development

Customers of IS/IT are concerned with getting working business applications delivered quickly and at low cost and Customers often see structured methods as unnecessarily bureaucratic and slow.

The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology was created as a way of addressing these issues and of minimising the impact of changes in user requirements on the project. The process of RAD involves breaking a system into several smaller subsystems by for example breaking the requirements into distinct sets. The first of these subsystems is then developed and reviewed by the customer. When customer satisfaction is achieved, the next subsystem is developed and reviewed and so on until the complete system is finished.

Following this methodology allows customers to be involved continually throughout the project and allows the product to be developed incrementally. Developing in this manner can allow the customer to use or even sell a partially complete solution.

Chosen Methodology

Due to the need to get a working system up and running as early as possible, the system will be developed using the RAD approach. This approach fits very well with the modular design of Moodle and will allow the system to develop quickly and parts of the system to be used while others are being developed. This methodology will also allow changes in requirements or the emergence of new requirements to be addressed as they arise.