> You spend months dreaming up a design spec with plenty of timing diagrams, UML diagrams, classes, etc.
>
> Then, it's reviewed, which means people read it and and try to make comments on it, then everyone pat themselves on the back because it's been 'signed-off'
I'm sure that happens, but I'm not commenting on what happens, I'm commenting on the Waterfall process as I remember it being taught in the 90s. What yysay above is definitely not what was taught.
> Feedback means actual, hard feedback, be it from the customer or reality.
Yeah, which is what the Waterfall process that I remember advocated: that the end-user be involved at all times, that the design be refined iteratively and quickly, and that the requirements.
I'm not sure where this misconception of what Waterfall advocates came from, but you're not the only one with it.
It's not a misconception, it's the way it is, including in the paper that has been quoted in this thread.
For instance, "Step 2: document the design" advocates extensive documentation upfront.
Of course there is feedback but the loop is very large and slow, and the paper emphasises that feedback ought "to be confined to sucessive steps", which, in addition is problematic when requirements change mid-way.
Agile is trying to solve a real issue with the waterfall model in general and, especially, when requirements are fluid.
>
> Then, it's reviewed, which means people read it and and try to make comments on it, then everyone pat themselves on the back because it's been 'signed-off'
I'm sure that happens, but I'm not commenting on what happens, I'm commenting on the Waterfall process as I remember it being taught in the 90s. What yysay above is definitely not what was taught.
> Feedback means actual, hard feedback, be it from the customer or reality.
Yeah, which is what the Waterfall process that I remember advocated: that the end-user be involved at all times, that the design be refined iteratively and quickly, and that the requirements.
I'm not sure where this misconception of what Waterfall advocates came from, but you're not the only one with it.