Ana iya bayyana SDLC a cikin wani nau'i na agile zuwa iterative zuwa sequential methodologies. Agile methodologies, irin su 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. Iterative methodologies, irin su Rational Unified da Dynamic Systems, suna mai da hankali kan faɗaɗa iyakantaccen tsarin aikin ko haɓaka ta hanyar samfuran samfuran da yawa.
Tsarin tsari ko babban zane-zane na gaba (BDUF)