Big Design Up Front

Big Design Up Front (BDUF) is a term for any software development approach in which the program's design is to be completed and perfected before that program's implementation is started. It is often associated with the waterfall model of software development.

Arguments for Big Design Up Front

Proponents of BDUF argue that time spent in designing is a worthwhile investment, and reference numerous studies which have concluded that less time and effort is spent fixing a bug in the early stages of a software products lifecycle than when that same bug is found and must be fixed later. That is, it is much easier to fix a requirements bug in the requirements phase than to fix that same bug in the implementation phase, as to fix a requirements bug in the implementation phase requires scrapping at least some implementation and design work which has already been completed.

Joel Spolsky, a popular online commentator on software development, has argued strongly in favor of Big Design Up Front:

<blockquote>"Many times, thinking things out in advance saved us serious development headaches later on. ... ... Making this change in the spec took an hour or two. If we had made this change in code, it would have added weeks to the schedule. I can’t tell you how strongly I believe in Big Design Up Front, which the proponents of Extreme Programming consider anathema. I have consistently saved time and made better products by using BDUF and I’m proud to use...
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