Yes, the person that invented that name did personally say he created it as a strawman and never saw it applied anywhere. At the same time, the waterfall model

Yes, the person that invented that name did personally say he created it as a strawman and never saw it applied anywhere. At the same time, the waterfall model was the standard model for contracting software in large organizations until around the 10s (yep, 2010s), usually mandated by all kinds of compliance rules.