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Discussion on: What’s your favorite piece of code that you had to throw away?

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cubiclebuddha profile image
Cubicle Buddha • Edited

I worked on a multi-year government project that was developed using the Waterfall approach (as opposed to Agile). By the time the project completed, the government customer had learned so much on their end that the changes involved a complete rewrite. I couldn’t help but wish we had learned along the way with them. That’s why I write so much about continuous learning and iterating through Agile now! :)

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Nicholas Stimpson • Edited

Do you feel that your government customers now engage sufficiently with Agile? Obtaining people on the customer side with the time and skills to provide the necessary feedback in a timely manner can be a challenge, in my experience.

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Cubicle Buddha

It depends. I have some friends who still work on government projects and it depends how risk averse the project is.

If you’re building something mission critical, it lends more towards upfront planning (which Waterfall is best at).

If you’re building something that is less risky, you can really embrace Agile. But sadly, those that started with Waterfall tend to turn Agile into “mini Waterfall”.