The focus of our  C2M methodology is to address two fundamental success factors for s/w development:

• Managing software development process from concept to market in a predictable manner with respect to cost, quality and timelines
• Developing a scalable technology platform to meet current and future needs in terms of product enhancement, integration with other applications and porting to newer technology. 

Symphony has evolved the C2M as  a hybrid SDLC for product development methodology after years of developing software products with short time-to-market objectives and cost pressures.  In our experience, most SDLC’s come mighty close but never perfectly fit a “product” development.  Product development typically requires methodologies that accommodate change  - the only thing constant about requirements is that they change!  At the same time, there needs to be disciplined decision making and project management to ensure that the delivery milestones are met and costs are controlled.  Most importantly, the process must ensure that technology and architecture decisions that have long-ranging effect on the products are well thought out and tested for scalability to support business needs, lower total cost of ownership, allow for the required customization, and enable easy maintenance.   Waterfall is too rigid. Agile can be challenging when you have distributed global teams working on the product. RAD’s code-test cycles present challenges in meeting changing requirements.  Additionally, we view quality assurance as a parallel project to the product development process. Quality has to be checked at every stage as undocumented assumptions and compromises can quickly turn the development cycle into a run-away train.