Department of Defense: Software Is Never Done (2019) [pdf]
I was a DoD contractor (the coding type, not the shooting type) for almost 15 years, and this is a really interesting read. I&#x27;ve heard some software devs state that &quot;the waterfall method was never really used&quot;. Those devs were not DoD software contractors for almost 15 years. DoD was and is all about the waterfall model. I have spreadsheet PTSD from seeing so many waterfall diagrams and project manager&#x27;s Gantt charts. I was working on a peanut-size project for the Navy (around $5-10million over 5 years) when Agile began picking up steam (mid 00s). I introduced the team to it and we began doing Agile to decent effect (at least in comparison to waterfall), and introduced it to our Navy sponsors. I remember some higher-ranking individual ask, &quot;wait, so this method can actually deliver software?&quot;  Or something like that. Of course, Agile is no panacea, but the iterative nature was waaaay better than what the DoD was doing.<p>I really like how they talk about &quot;individuals of talent&quot; in the document. Much of the DoD focuses around process, to great effect. The problem is that you can&#x27;t take a process and put software drones on it and deliver software of any complexity. That goes against much (but not all!) of the DoD paradigm, it is interesting to see they might be changing.<p>Of course, they will meet great resistance, after all, the first job of a successful contractor is to extract as much money as possible from the government with as little work as possible. &quot;Never finish a contract&quot; was the mantra we had learned from the giant contractors.<p>Glad to be out of there, but it was a really interesting experience!