[mpyne]

Yes, and this is much of my lament. The DoD mindset pervaded a lot of places building significant software systems in early computing, as compared to NASA and others.

I don't think iteration should have been considered unfortunate even back then, but it was. And by the time the DoD started to realize iteration was not only required, but helpful (no later than the mid-1980s with a Defense Science Board report on software acquisition methods initiated by Dr. Fred Brooks), the waterfall methods had more or less infested all of DoD software acquisition.

Even worse (for DoD), this was occurring even as DoD's organic ability to develop software-based systems was atrophying, so they needed their contracting/acquisition process to lead to successful software delivery more than ever before. Had DoD had a solid internal iterative software development process they could fall back on they'd have been in much less of a pickle.