Waterfall method

       The waterfall method is the oldest system development method. Its starting point is, that things should be done in nice phases, that a phase ends with new, approved documentation, and that the next phase then starts. This is some of the reason there's a lot of documentation. Another effect is, that the design can't be changed after the design phase, so you assume that the goal is very clear from the beginning. The comparison with the waterfall comes from: once the water is over the edge, you can't get it to move up - you can't go backwards. It's an advantage, that things look very good on paper, with easy to calculate deadlines. It's a disadvantage, that reality isn't this nice, so you end up doing something not so waterfall like anyway.

Concept last updated: 06/05 2004.

Relations
is a kind of
uses tools from

Other sources

Variabel Waterfall method Webserver

Libellus