Comments by "Dean Schulze" (@deanschulze3129) on "Waterfall Over Agile In 2023???" video.

So Kent Beck's version of waterfall is Market Research -> UX Design -> Software Development, and that is terribly wrong and sure to fail. What's the approach that is likely to work, then? Do you not do market research up front? Or is it the UX design up front that is the problem? I like the idea of updating market research while development is in progress, but this discussion was just lame. They don't say what the better way is.
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When end users won't do the work to create good requirements up front then developers can use software iterations to hone in on what the requirements should be. Get feedback and iterate again. This approach may not be ideal but it works.
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@jlou888 - Waterfall has always had feedback and iterations, but they are considerably longer than typical agile iterations would be. Waterfall was really a straw man setup by Winston Royce to illustrate a point. I've never worked on a classic waterfall project (though I've been told they actually exist). I have worked on a lot of projects that were code-and-fix or that had some big design up front. I think the key difference between BDUF and being agile is that with agile your up front planning and design is minimal so it is easy to leave it behind. If people put a lot of effort up front it's more difficult to leave it behind and change what you will deliver.
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I've run into this problem multiple times. The end user doesn't know what they want. They have a general idea but haven't thought through to completion what it is they want built. That's where agile requirements come in. As developers we make our best guess what the customer wants and build a prototype quickly. Get feedback and iterate again. Software iterations can drive out ambiguities in requirements. You don't have to determine everything up front. Ambiguities can open up opportunities that you couldn't see earlier in the process. Ambiguity isn't always a bad thing.
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@ComradeOgilvy1984 - I don't think the Wright Brothers is a good analogy for software development. They had to create the field of aerodynamics while they were creating powered flight. They created the first wind tunnel. They did a lot of work on internal combustion engines getting a high power to weight ratio. They had their own engine builder. That would be like developers having to create their own language and compiler while they were creating their application.
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