Software Development Lifecycle

[Mich the Tester]

Waterfall works. It has limited uses, but does have uses. It has to be a project that is effectively a much repeated project and very well known.

wot? Like something that's already been done and so doesn't need to be done again?

[Mich the Tester]

Try operating an agile approach over a crackly telephone call with an off shore team with pidgin English.

Sometimes waterfall is the only way.

I think I've spotted the problem here.

[MarillionFan]

Try operating an agile approach over a crackly telephone call with an off shore team with pidgin English.

Sometimes waterfall is the only way.

Doing it now. And what a rivetting call it is.

[Mich the Tester]

Are you savvy developers / PMs aware that the whole concept of 'waterfall' in software development was simply an academic misunderstanding?

Waterfall Accident

For those too lazy to read this, the relevant paragraph is: What we today know as the waterfall model comes from a paper with the title "Managing the Development of Large Software Systems", written in 1970 by Winston W. Royce. On page 2 it contains the famous diagram with the cascade starting at "System requirements" on the upper left, continuing on through "Program Design" and "Coding" down to "Operations" on the lower right.

But nobody seemed to notice that Royce does not promote this model. On the contrary, directly below he writes “… the implementation described above is risky and invites failure.” He then goes on to promote a different process: He recommends to “do it twice” by building a throw-away “pilot model” first to explore novel elements and unknown factors. Furthermore, in the introduction Royce admits that he has no data to back-up his ideas, he calls them "personal views" and "prejudices".

Somehow the intellectual lightweights of the time (project managers I'd expect) took the simple (but incorrect) solution as promoted it as the way forward and we have all suffered greatly since. Although some of you have invoiced well out of it I'd expect.

As Henry Ford said, thinking is the hardest work of all, which is why so few people do it.

Well done sir, excellent information, confirms everything I ever thought, now put it away and don't tell anyone again in case you stop the gravy train.

[Mich the Tester]

Doing it now. And what a rivetting call it is.

I am feeling this is being change request; please be changing status!

[doodab]

Suity : <thinking> Ok error handling added as an after thought. Bit of a worry but if you criticise then you are technically a hypocrite. </thinking>

Why would criticising the adding of error handling as an afterthought make you a hypocrite?

[MarillionFan]

I am feeling this is being change request; please be changing status!

JIRA call. Jesus christ.

[Arturo Bassick]

wot? Like something that's already been done and so doesn't need to be done again?

Kind of, obviously it needs to be done again or you wouldn't be doing it. If your firm does the same thing over and over again with very little variance then you can use the waterfall as a management tool to show you have followed the well worn procedure.

[doodab]

Waterfall 2006 - International Conference on Sequential Development

[Mich the Tester]

JIRA call. Jesus christ.

We are not being certain that this issue '535 Wrong sum total in price and sales tax calculation' is truly production blocking issue; please to be changing to minor or cosmetic change request.