The problem with “waterfall” product development processes is not the process itself. Its the people. The process relies too much on informationation transfer in huge chunks that gets larger and more complex as the process moves down the chain. Unless you have a fully motivated and very detail oriented team, something WILL get lost in the translation. More simply put, people hate to read and ends up just skimming the PRD, scope, ERD, and whatever 80 page document you put infront of them.

Well, Sasha over at Yahoo! has a little “plug-in” called Collaboration Sessions that attempts to get everyone on the team to think in the same framework regarding the product to be developed that helps (but not completely) make the traditional process more effective.

BTW, Boxes & Arrows is my blog find of the week. Seems to have lots of Yahoo! people blogging so gives alittle insight into the nature of the beast over at Mathilda & First. Will have spent Saturday morning catching up on all the old articles.