The paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of both classical waterfall and modern agile software development life cycle models. To increase the flexibility and reduce the complexity of students’ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) avionics development projects, a combined model for developing a hardware-software data processing module is proposed, which combines the advantages of two models: the “waterfall” model for developing hardware and an agile model for developing software. For a comprehensive assessment of the combined model for developing a hardware-software data processing module, the Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis methodology, which is a popular strategic planning tool, was used. For its implementation, the advantages and disadvantages, external opportunities and threats of the combined model for developing a hardware-software data processing module were formulated. The proposed combined model will allow student teams with little experience to develop hardware-software data processing modules with minimal risks, ensuring code reuse and address the modern attractiveness of UAV projects.