MATLAB now has the capability for serious projects, not just casual prototyping. As projects get bigger and team size grows, explicit and consistent development practices become more important. MATLAB is used with a range of recognized development practices from traditional to more recent agile approaches. This chapter presents techniques and strategies that are generally applicable to most of these practices. It also includes some items that are agile-specific.

Traditional approaches tend to have formal documented specifications and detailed design up front, with code documentation and testing near the end of the process. Agile approaches promote writing code and tests early, refactoring often to produce design, and placing less emphasis on formal documentation.

The goal of any development is software that works, usually including properties such as stability, correctness, extensibility, and maintainability. All serious development approaches include elements such as design, documentation, and test. The project deliverables are code (main and test) and documentation (of software, process, and evaluation).

Most software projects are constrained by developer time. Use practices that make the best use of your limited time and are effective in your work environment. Despite schedule pressures, make time to learn about important elements of the language, features of the development environment, and best practices.