The software development world, and particularly VLSCEs (Very Large Scale Corporate Entities), has been locked in a love/hate relationship with the Rational software development process for three decades now. Is it time to admit that this very logical approach to software development isn’t very effective?

The massive planning expense that is the ‘Rational” process often goes to waste as the project makes it into the hands of real users. Would it make more sense to focus on the assumptions that seem to drive the need for a solution, translate hypotheses into code and get ideas tested by actual users as quickly as possible?