The Great Delivery Debate
Dr. Winston Royce first described a model for working with large software systems in 1970, which we’ve grown to know as “Waterfall”. Interestingly enough what many never read in his writings on SW development, is the following quote: “I believe in this concept, but the implementation described above is risky and invites failure.” (Source: Dr. Winston Royce. Proceedings, IEEE WESCON, August 1970) Why could he have said this? Could it be that many times requirements are emergent? Perhaps it’s that estimating large and complex bodies of work based on a requirements document can be incredibly inaccurate?
While I have a large bias towards Agile methodologies, as a consultant it’s my responsibility to evaluate what truly is the best solution for a client. I was recently on a project in a marketing organization, and while there certainly were some opportunities for Agile principles to be utilized, a framework like Scrum or Kanban just would not have been possible. I’ve heard some waterfall purists sum agile up to a bunch of people who want to get out of documentation and commitments to timelines. Ouch. But I also hear a lot of criticism from agile truthers about anyone who leverages waterfall as being clueless and archaic. Can’t we all just get along? Yeah, we can actually. But we have to start to recognize that Agile and Waterfall have value in different ways.
I’d love to have some discussion about what is seemingly a great divide between Agile and Waterfall methodologies. To help those in each “camp” understand why a specific method has value towards solving their business problems. What are some examples where you think a Waterfall process was truly the best solution for a project? What were some of the identifiers you had to come to that conclusion? Have you had success with using a “ScrumerFall” model where the Requirements, and design is all done up front, but Execution is done in sprints?
Projektmanager Bau und Immobilien, Kommunikations- und Wirtschaftstrainer, Bildungsmanager Qualit?tsbeauftragter
7 年As projects are unique by definition, they also need unique organizations. In all cases: design must follow!
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7 年My favorite Bruce Lee quote "Do not pray for an easy life, pray for the strength to endure a difficult one."
Senior Director at IGS Solar | Leading business strategy, product, and operations | Driving growth, optimization, and innovation | Advocating for sustainability and conscious capitalism
7 年Thanks for the post and discussion here, everyone! One key, especially as technological advances continue to make greater leaps forward, it will be ever more important to remain adaptive with approaches, tools, and techniques. While one methodology or another may have worked well in the past and even still may today, tomorrow is unknown. The variety of work calls for a spectrum of techniques, with most that lie somewhere in between the two seemingly-at-odds ends. They are not necessarily at odds. And, of course, the most important factor in all projects is that we are dealing with people - a kind of work that certainly requires adaptiveness and many a strategy. The bottom line: Use pieces that work, omit the ones that don't, and always keep learning!
Executive Leader | Business Transformation Strategist | Crisis Navigator
7 年Great article. I think the key takeaway is targeting the best solution for your customer and the individual project and it's needs.
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7 年https://www.history.com/s3static/video-thumbnails/AETN-History_VMS/21/154/History_Kaiser_Builds_Hoover_Dam_and_Warships_45407_SF_HD_1104x622-16x9.jpg