4 ms·

I think it is more correctly defined as "Big Upfront Design". This was a thing; months spent on analysis and design that filled several tomes.

• Jtsummers 5y ago
  Big Design Up Front (the more common way of ordering the words) is related to, but is not, Waterfall. Waterfall is best considered an instance of BDUF (to borrow a programming term). V-Model and (often) Iterative & Incremental (slow-motion Scrum) each have varying degrees of BDUF as well, and there are plenty of other SDLCs out there that can be categorized as BDUF-lifecycles. Waterfall's principle failing for large scale projects is that it does not incorporate sufficient (if any) feedback or delays the feedback until too late in the cycle, and plans too far out to be reasonable (do you kwon with any real confidence what you'll have for dinner in 3 years, 2 months and a day?) V-model generally also plans out very far, but incorporates V&V as an ongoing activity (it's name is a bit of a pun, both incorporating V&V and usually being charted out as a V, vice a waterfall for Waterfall). I&I may have a big design phase, but it's usually not as fully designed as either Waterfall or the V-model because the iterations are meant to provide checkpoints for validating the design and potentially changing direction (like I wrote, slow-motion Scrum).