I’m Stuck in a Waterfall

And I might like it

I’ve been reading Everyday Chaos, and part of this book really resonated with me in a way I wasn’t expecting.

In a world full of chaos, the Minimal Viable Product is king. With an MVP, you can release something to see what the audience wants. You don’t have to make a guess at unpredictable user behavior. There’s no way of knowing how they will receive a product. Focus on one thing, do it well enough to make it useful, and get feedback from the masses. This is the heart of the agile process.

In essence, less planning produces better software.

Conversely, more planning produces a worse product. This is the waterfall method’s flaw.

And I’m realizing that I might be stuck in the waterfall.

On the surface, that might be a bad thing. But I’m still trying to decide if that’s the case.

There are some obvious cons for being in the waterfall.

One, I’m not writing code very often. I wrote about this before without realizing that maybe, just maybe, I’m stuck in a waterfall. Feel free to read that post if you’d like to know my full thoughts there.

Additionally, as Everyday Chaos might suggest, the product I’m building is susceptible to being worse off. By the time I’ve finished building my well-sculpted plan, the audience has moved on. They want something else. At least that’s my fear.

However, maybe it’s good that I’m stuck in the waterfall.

I’m working on a completed piece of software. I’m adjusting it, fine tuning it to make it more profitable. The features I’m adding could be seen as gravy.

Being stuck planning keeps me from writing code, and reduces my chances of breaking a product that prints money.

Being stuck in the waterfall could be extremely profitable for some companies.

So, I’m stuck inside a waterfall, but I’m not sure if I really want to leave.