Software Development Models for IoT

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the infrastructure that combines physical objects (“things”) embedded with smart devices, sensors, and actuators which are connected via virtual enablers such as messaging protocols, services, middleware, and data semantics. The wide variety of applications considered for IoT urged the need for both stakeholders and developers to adopt software development models to facilitate building, deploying, and maintaining complex software systems. The main purpose of these development models is to decompose the software product life-cycle into phases to efficiently lead the way from product conception through its design, implementation, testing, delivery, operation, and maintenance. The focus of this paper is to examine the main software development models used in IoT, including Waterfall, Agile, and their hybrid models by highlighting their advantages and disadvantages. This research also investigates the key non-functional requirements (NFR) of IoT software systems such as interoperability, reliability, scalability, security. and privacy.