[smurph]

I've had federal employees tell me with a straight face that waterfall development is the only model that works, and that is why 'all of the tech companies use it'. These people have often gone and gotten certifications for stuff like six sigma and CMMI. They will never change their tune. You basically have to wait for all of them to retire. The average government tech worker is so different from the commercial tech worker that they may as well be a different industry all together.

[gohrt]

I once worked for a very successful software company with a customer base that included government (IT installations), academic (college courses lab work, hardware research), financial (banks), and industry (computer hardware manufacturers).

We built a platform, and had a consulting wing that built custom "apps" on top of it.

We did Waterfall and CMMI. Waterfall was most intense for the consulting projects. I remember being assigned to build feature 3.2.2.1 in the spec.