   Need advice choosing a methodology
  Hi.I''m currently a student trying to develop my final project for the career. The project is going to be an engine for basic games (puzzle games, mainly), using OpenGL/OpenAL under Windows. I need to write down all   the theory, the analisys, the design, etc. that the choosen methodology would produce. In fact, it doesn''t matter if my final work works or doesn''t work: what they are going to evaluate is, in fact, only the documentation! (Yes, It''s stupid, but Spain works that way). Here''s where my problems begin:The career, at the university, is focused on "classic" software (i.e.: databases, office suites, etc...): At software engineering, we''ve studied the waterfall methodology and the yourdon methodologies in deep, and some others methodologies vaguely. I find that all those methodologies have too much useless documentation, and aren''t useful when developing games (or just the engine, as in my case).I''ve been having a look at some other methodologies (XP, XGD) over the web, but those are focused on teams of developers and publishers, designers, artists, etc... And I''m not sure the documentation they produce is going to be valuable for my teachers.Definitely, I''m lost. Which should I choose? Notes:-The engine is going to be procedural (not Object Oriented).-I''m the only developer.-The methodology should produce enough documentation (but not loads of useless documentation).-I would prefer some iterative methodology.Any suggestions, please?   theNestruoSyntax error in 2410Ok 
  Im not sure this technique produces enough documentaiton for your purposes, as it intentionally defocus form it. But Agile seems to be a good fit for your requirements.http://www.codeproject.com/gen/design/agileprogramming.aspCheck out the link for an overview.Good Luck.-ddn ;  Requirements:   1) Produce software documentation.   2) Produce initial demonstration codeAgile methods require you to design, implement, integrate & test many, many times.  The design documents do not cover the scope of the project until the last iteration has begun.  With waterfall, the design documents cover the entire scope of the project once the design phase is complete.Even with waterfall you still have "back flow", were you modify the design and correct requirements.  But there's only one phase, that the team focus on design.  With an agile method, you pick a requirement, use-case, or milestone and do a mini-waterfall with it (then repeat until there are no targets left).Since you are interested in documentation, you should use the so-called waterfall method.  With an agile method, you will spend time coding when you could be addressing your primary requirement (documents).If you attempt an agile method, but only do the design portions of the iterations, then you are doing waterfall but calling it something else.   [edited by - Magmai Kai Holmlor on February 12, 2004 9:28:31 PM];quote:Original post by theNestruo  In fact, it doesn''t matter if my final work works or doesn''t work: what they are going to evaluate is, in fact, only the documentation! (Yes, It''s stupid, but Spain works that way).  All universities work that way, the trick is realising it quick enough... ;  Our code had to work, or the teacher wouldn''t even accept it! ;  My first choice would be SSADM simply because it''s the most structured and gives you a highly structured framework to work to. This methodology also produces the most documentation (too much). Another option is JSP - Jackson Structured Programming although this only covers the implementation phase of the system development life cycle leaving the other 5 out. JSP isn''s as good as Yourdon.Since you''ve studied yourdon, I would go for that. It''s a good methodology ;  Merise is like the french version of SSADM since it was developed and used by the french government. Merise however is slightly different from traditional waterfall methodologies though since it incorporates three internal cycles.I still think the best option is to use a Yourdon methodology. 