I know of the history of the term "waterfall". I've also heard people say "we use waterfall", meaning (though they might not know it), something more like Rocye

I know of the history of the term "waterfall". I've also heard people say "we use waterfall", meaning (though they might not know it), something more like Rocye's modified waterfall model. But what I rarely get from agile people is a discussion of what is "agile" vs. other approaches. I came of age as a developer in the 1990s, strongly influenced by McConnell's "Rapid Development", which describes a dozen different development styles. RAD of course was one of the influences of the Agile movement, but I never understood what "agile" meant, and the manifesto still doesn't make sense to me, leaving me to think it's tied to issues that come up in large software development projects, while my career has all been in small to mid-size projects with <200 people years of effort. You've provided some excellent commentary. With the current pandemic and two preschoolers home from school, I simply don't have the time to follow your links and give them due thought and consideration. Probably the fundamental blocking point is that I am self-employed, working with at most a small group of people for consulting/contract work. As such, I simply don't have the experience that would help me really understand how these issues affect things. I will keep this page open, and read those links more thoroughly at some point, but probably not until after massive vaccination and re-opening of libraries, museums, and other places to burn off pre-schooler energy and attention needs.