How we got here, part 1

Waterfall

Requirements Analysis

Design

Implement

Test / Verify

Integrate

Fail.

In 1970, Winston W. Royce wrote a paper titled, "Managing the Development of Large Software Systems".

In this paper, Royce described a process consisting of the six listed stages (ok, "Fail" was "Maintain" in his paper, but bear with me.) He acknowledged that this model was inherently risky and invited failure, and suggested modifications to improve it, such as iterative development and feedback loops. Had people listened, we might have gone Agile a few decades sooner. But I digress.

The industry widely misinterpreted his paper as endorsing this sequential, rigid model, and thus the Waterfall methodology was born. Mind you, this was the exact methodology which produced such resounding successes as the Ford Edsel. Again, I digress.

Truth be told, nobody actually READ the paper! Let's remember that the English Language is truly a poor way to communicate, shall we? Why? Because nobody reads anything, and if two people read the same thing, they'll walk away with two different meanings.

We'll bring this up again later.