The Waterfall Model - What It Is Not and Has Never Been

Abstract

Since the Waterfall model was published, literature has been full with critiques and proposals for alternative processes, most recently Agile Development. However, a substantial percentage of waterfall project failures can be attributed to lack of understanding of some fundamental issues, issues that are also present when modern methodologies are used. Ignoring such issues will lead to project failure, regardless of the methodology that is used. Also, the waterfall (or, a "mini" waterfall) is still an essential building block of all more complex life cycle models, such as incremental, evolutionary, spiral, or iterative incremental development (IID). This briefing starts with the prevailing description of the Waterfall Model. It highlights the hidden abstractions of the model and seeks to develop successively more complex descriptions to facilitate the understanding of the underlying issues.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 18, 2012
Accession Number
ADA562761

Entities

People

  • Peter Hantos

Organizations

  • The Aerospace Corporation

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agile Software Development
  • Cycles
  • Engineering
  • Industrial Engineering
  • Life Cycle Testing
  • Life Cycles
  • Literature
  • Mechatronic Engineering
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test Methods

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Software Engineering.
  • Theoretical Analysis.