Recently I was sitting in the train and my thoughts started wandering about some software projects we had. The term „waterfall model“ came to my mind. Why is it called waterfall? One possible explanation is that like in a waterfall there are certain points of no return and from there a completely uncontrolled dynamic process started with a lot of turbulence, until we might hit another level with calm waters. It also is a good term for describing the amount of energy that seems to appear from out of nowhere. And I found another analogy I see a software project as a small boat and once it hits the waterfall, it is just not the same as it used to be before. It will end up having a lot of dents, and quick fixes that we try to apply in the calm waters, in order to survive the next fall. So I really like the term waterfall model.
Looking at wikipedia to find the origin of the term waterfall model does not reveal a lot of insights. The interesting part is that the original article did not present it is as good way of developing software, but as an example for a flawed, non working model. It is interesting to see that many students still learn this model as one that should be applied to software processes, even so the original author already knew that the model is flawed. So instead of finding the origin of the word, I found out that this whole model results in a major misunderstanding that is still alive until today.
0 Comments