[Terms] 그린필드 Greenfield Development

Greenfield is a term from the construction industry that refers to undeveloped land. In the IT world, greenfield describes a software project that is developed from scratch rather than built from an existing program. It is often contrasted with "brownfield," which describes software built from an existing program.

Greenfield software development is generally more flexible than brownfield development since a new program does not need to fit a specific mold. For example, a greenfield word processor might provide a completely new user interface and may have features not available in any previous program. Additionally, greenfield software does not need to be backwards compatible with older versions of a program. There is no need to support legacy file formats or include previous features to meet end user expectations.

While greenfield projects are open ended, developing software from scratch involves inherent risk. For example, there may not be as large of a market for a program as the developer expects. The interface may not be well-received and may need to be altered or redesigned to be more user-friendly. It make take several updates before a greenfield application is successful in the marketplace. Of course, greenfield programs that succeed often benefit from being a unique option for users until similar applications are developed.

NOTE: The vast majority of software development is brownfield, since most major software releases are updates to existing programs. However, there has been a recent surge in greenfield development thanks to the new market of mobile apps.

쉽게 말하자면 그린필드는 아예 밑그림부터 시작해서 하나의 그림을 완성하는 것이고

브라운필드는 이미 그려놓은 그림을 덧칠하거나 수정하는 식으로 완성하는 것

일반적으로는 소프트웨어개발은 브라운필드지만

프로젝트가 신생분야인 경우(약 10년전의 모바일앱 개발이나 딥러닝 등)에는 그린필드로 분류되겠다.  

reference: https://techterms.com/definition/greenfield