Waterfall vs Agile, First Generation vs Second Generation

    I have chosen this topic for today to help individuals to understand in a better way the differences and similarities between the software development methods:

• Waterfall (traditional);
• First Generation of Agile (XP, Scrum);
• and Second Generation of Agile (Lean, Kanban, BDD).

Here are a few parameters, with values for all of these 3, the same order:
Parameter

• value for Waterfall
• value for First Generation of Agile
• value for Second Generation of Agile

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​    Here are the comparisons:
Requirements

• should be collected before implementation begins
• the stakeholders don't understand their needs in a very clear way at start
• same as previous

Value Delivery

• best in full
• incremental
• same as previous

What is agile based on

• N/A
• Principles and Values
• Principles, Values, Human Behavior and Product Development Flow

Learning

• People are told what to do
• People learn best by doing and continuously improve what they do
• People learn in theory and practice

How to improve

• Management will tell workers the best way to do it
• Focus on people doing the best work and telling management how can help these people
• Management creates the best working environment and people will self-organize

People and process relationship

• Use process to tell people what to do
• People over process
• Process is important, but it must serve people

Management

• Management dictates process to teams
• Somehow ignored initially, but at some point this will be changed
• Teams recognize that management is essential in the creation of valuable software

Scope of methods

• Look at the entire value stream
• Focus on the team
• Look at the entire value stream

Workload

• Planned ahead and it is given to teams
• Pulled by team in batches
• Pulled by team in small pieces, managed by WIP (Work in Progress) methods

Time-Boxing

• Not used
• Used for managing iterations
• Cadence is used to coordinate activities

    For mode details on these, please read here:

• Mindsets: Waterfall, 1st & 2nd Generation Agile
• The Different Agile Approaches: First (XP, Scrum) and Second (Lean/Kanban) Generation Methods