Software Methodology

Agile practices have gained popularity among various organizations due to their

feature of reducing costs and encouraging change during the development cycle. In a modern

software development environment, changes to any software product are inevitable. Agile

methodology provides an answer for this issue (Gahyyur et al., 2018). Feature Driven

Development (FDD) is one of the agile process models (Tarwani & Chug, 2016) that

develops software according to the client's features. The FDD consists of five processes,

several practices and both are providing benefits to improve software development (Nawaz,

2021). According to Tirumula, Ali, and Anjan (2016), the initial process or phase in FDD is

to Develop an Overall Model. In addition, after the initial phase, Build a Feature List, Plan by

Feature, Design by Feature, and Build by Feature phase will be carried out (Baswardono et

al., 2021).

Fig. 2 Feature Driven Development

Develop an Overall Model
Developing an Overall Model is the first phase in which the context and scope of the

project are finalized, for this purpose a high-level walk-through meeting is conducted (Aftab

et al., 2018). Domain experts lead you through a high-level and detailed walkthrough of each

area of the problem domain. Following each walkthrough, developers collaborate in a small

group to design an object model. Once all problems and sub-problems have been modeled,

they are integrated to produce the overall model, which is then incrementally updated with

content via the design-by-feature phase (Ibrahim et al., 2020).

The researchers conducted an interview with their barangay chairman to gather data

such as different services offered, procedures, reports, document templates, and committees.

A communication letter and interview guide questions were given and signed by the barangay

chairman prior to the interview. Based on the data gathered, researchers brainstormed,

recapitulated information, and create an overview considering issues barangay facing on the

pandemic where they identified a problem that an impediment always happens when it comes

to disseminating relevant information and implementing services for its residents due to strict

implementation of social distancing since they are still using an old school method when it

comes to these matters and does not have any existing portal. Hence, researchers proposed a

responsive web portal as a solution to the said problem which makes the foundation of this

study.

Build a Features List,

Build a Features List is the second phase which deals with the development of the

feature list. As its name shows, FDD focuses on features, a feature is a valuable function that

has some business value in software (Nawaz, Aftab, and Anwer, 2017). After the selection of

the domain object model in the first phase, it is easier for the team to define a comprehensive

list of features to be developed. According to Palmer (in Aftab et al., 2019), these features are
then grouped into a feature set, which is a collection of related features. Two weeks is the

maximum time for the implementation of any feature, if it feels difficult to implement any

particular feature within two weeks then it would be broken into two or more sub-features.

Finally, all the documented features are approved by the customer.

The researchers will organize related features into a feature set based on the problem

and proposed solution in the previous phase. The feature set which serves as the list of

features to be developed will contain community membership, resident information, news,

event and announcement, events photo and gallery, document request, complaint submission,

covid cases and vaccination report, social engagement, report generation, data analysis,

artificial intelligence chatbot, and gamification.

Plan by Feature
Plan by Feature is the third phase which deals with the planning to implement the

features. The key activity of this phase is to assign priorities to features so that the higher

priority feature would be considered in early iterations (Aftab et al., 2019). The project

manager, chief programmer, and development manager are required to build a plan for the

implementation of features. Each feature with the highest priority should be considered in the

first iteration. After priority assigning, each feature is checked against its business need

which verifies that the features are according to the project’s requirements. According to

Nawaz (2021), development is needed to identify feature dependencies and measure the

complexity of features. Moreover, features are assigned to developers which are known as

Class Owners.

The researchers will select features that will be treated with the highest priority to be

considered for early iterations. In every feature, an implementation plan containing the

development schedule, dependencies, complexity level, and class owner will be

accomplished. After creating an implementation plan, it will then undergo verification to

determine if it satisfies this study's needs or requirements.

Design by Feature
Design by Feature is the fourth phase of the model and the first phase of the iteration.

An iteration can consist of one day to two weeks. This phase focuses on different activities

such as: designing the sequence diagrams, writing the classes, and refining the overall model

Moreover different design packages are also produced against each class in this phase. The

list of selected features is scheduled for development by assigning them to chief

programmers. Then chief programmers select features for the development and identify the

class owners to form a feature team. According to Baswardono et al., (2021), technical

features are compiled, database design, and form display for each feature, and the making of

the application is based on the features that have been planned. The class writers refine and

inspect the design of the object model based on the content of the sequence diagrams.

The researchers will develop a sequence diagram for the system features that will be

used to modify and improve the implementation plan from the third phase. The researchers

will select features to be developed and their class owners which will lead to a feature team.

The researchers will also create a technical and database design to ensure that system will be

created based on the features that have been planned and selected in previous phases. The

researchers will then inspect if these designs matched the content of the sequence diagram.

Build by Feature
Build by Feature is the second phase of iteration and the last phase of the FDD

development life cycle. According to Aftab et al., (2019) and Nawaz, Aftab & Anwer (2017),

this phase deals with the actual implementation of features. After coding, code inspection and

unit testing is performed. When an iteration is completed successfully, the developed features
are integrated with previously developed modules. Goyal added (in Gahyyur et al., 2018),

working on the design plan bundle delivered amid the Design by Feature process, the class

proprietors execute the things fundamental for their class to help the outline for the feature(s)

in the work bundle. The code created is then unit tried and code examined, the request of

which is controlled by the Chief Programmer. After an effective code assessment, the code is

allowed to build.

The researchers will implement all the features selected in the previous phase into a

working module. During implementation, researchers will utilize Django Framework and

Firebase for the backend and HTML5, CSS and Bootstrap 5 Framework, and Javascript for

the frontend. The codes on every feature will then be tested and inspected to verify if it works

as intended. The verified codes will then be converted into modules and be integrated into

previously build modules of the system from the iterations. Once the researchers

implemented all of the features, underwent testing, and successfully verified for building, the

completed system will then be presented to the client.

Reference
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