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Yes, "Rapid Development" lists a dozen or more approaches, including iterative prototyping and (modified) waterfall, with pros and cons of each one.

My issue with the standard Agile story repeated here is the lack of any mention of pre-Agile approaches other than waterfall.

Take: "Rather than clearing the way for software developers to build, waterfall gummed up the works with binders of paperwork and endless meetings."

Why is there no mention of any other approach? We can easily point to the Macintosh project, which took 5 years (1979 to 1984). Yet, no waterfall there.

Or, take a closer look at: "Peter Varhol, a technology industry consultant, estimates that in the early 1990s, the average application took three years to develop, from idea to finished product." (That's shorter than the Macintosh project.)

What does that mean? Which industry? What kind of applications? Clearly a lot of "log cabin" PC applications are excluded from that list - just think of all the DB2 and VB applications people wrote in that era. And video games.



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