Ana iya bayyana SDLC tare da kewayon agile zuwa iterative zuwa jerin hanyoyin. Hanyoyin Agile, kamar XP da Scrum, suna mai da hankali kan matakai masu sauƙi waɗanda ke ba da damar saurin canje-canje (ba tare da bin tsarin tsarin SDLC ba) tare da ci gaban ci gaba. Hanyoyin Iterative, kamar Rational Unified da Dynamic Systems, suna mai da hankali kan faɗaɗa iyakantaccen tsarin aikin ko haɓaka ta hanyar samfuran iterative da yawa.
Rational Unified tsari da kuma tsauri tsarin ci gaban Hanyar