For a while now I've been trying to find an analogy to demonstrate the big problem of the Waterfall SDLC in that
- A project often progresses well in the early stages
- But, when it reaches testing all sorts of nasties are revealed
- So, the project runs late, is de-scoped and/or works horrendous overtime.
- The problem is that we can't reasonably know how many bugs there are or how long testing will take until we're a good way into the testing.
Now. Before the analogy: if you're not familiar with the effects of eating dried apricots then ... its the same effect as eating prunes ... if that doesn't help then ... ask your mother, she'll know.
Now, finally, the analogy.
A few years ago I was working from home and I was feeling a bit peckish. So, I went to the cupboard, had a poke around. All I could find was a packet of dried apricots. Not sure what they were doing there, but I thought "what the hell", had a nibble and decided that they were quite nice. So, I took the packet to my desk and kept working. And, nibbling. Working and nibbling until the entire packet was gone.
No problems so far. No idea what was waiting ahead of me.
Fast forward 3 hours. I'm heading out the door to a Simple Minds concert (this was a revival tour) and there is a faint rumbling in my tummy. Hmmmm. Never mind. All is still well. More or less.
Fast forward 2 hours. Just finished the first set. I'm leaving. In a rush. Wife-to-be is hurrying along behind me; struggling to keep up; asking if I'm okay; but I'm not saying anything specific; just that I have to leave. Concentrating too hard to talk.
Ten minutes later. In a taxi. Approaching home. Still concentrating. Give wife-to-be the keys to my apartment. Hand the taxi driver a much-too-large note and say "keep" the change. The wife-to-be has run ahead to unlock the apartment door.
Ten minutes later. All is well. No words said between wife-to-be and myself. No need. Modern apartment: the walls are too thin to keep some secrets.
If only someone had told me before hand.
