Software Development Processes

Similar to Ecclesiastes, We could discuss the many different software development processes or methods (SDM) being discussed , taught, and abused by most of the software development world and say that all of them are useless.  Just about any process would be beneficial if it was followed correctly.  Many technical manager and software engineers will argue that their project suffered because it did not use the best methodology but it has been my experience that most projects suffer from poorly executed processes not because they failed to use RAD or whatever other flavor of the day SDM methodology you care to mention but because they failed to follow any reasonable repeatable process at all.  I will use this page to discuss SDM methods and examples I have seen and/or worked with where they worked and where they didn’t work.  Some reasons why may be argued…