[bip] agile software development

[Titus Brown]

-> > -> I think the reference to "waterfall design", when brought up
-> > -> in the various pro-agile/xp debates, is a straw man argument.
-> > -> Very few people use that approach.
-> >
-> > ... you would be surprised how many people are *taught* that, and how
-> > many teachers will *defend* it.  It's not a straw man to them ;)
-> 
-> Sorry, it's my lack of experience in the Big Wide World showing
-> through here.  In the world of scientific software, and in Python
-> software, there's very few people using that approach.

Well, yes, because in research you very rarely can say that you
understand the problem before you enter into the code ;)

-> The Wikipedia page claims that most people use "modified waterfall
-> models."

That's more or less what I meant; that, or BDUF,

	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Design_Up_Front

-> So until I have a few pointers to actual projects done
-> using waterfall, I'm going to be very skeptical about
-> the claim that real projects are done using "the standard
-> waterfall model."

Here's one pointer to a very much BDUF project:

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/06/writestuff.html

I believe (anecdotally) that software design for embedded auto systems
use BDUF methodology.

And I can definitely tell you that rapid prototyping is NOT taught in
computer science departments... but that's a whole 'nother discussion
that we can have over whisky (beer isn't strong enough) down the road.

-> > Are you familiar with pygr,
-> >
-> > 	http://bioinfo.mbi.ucla.edu/pygr

[ ... ]

I passed your comments on to Chris Lee; I'm sure he'd welcome patches or
suggestions.

cheers,
--titus