Conversations Under a Waterfall : Documentation

I don't know yet if this will be a on going series, but I have a lot of material to work with. The current company that I am working at has fully embraced all of the best practices of software development that the 1970's has to offer. That's right...they love their waterfall. To be honest management loves the waterfall. The developers simply "put up with it". I don't know which is worse. So as self proclaimed agile developer, I thought it would be fun to document some of the conversations that I have with my colleagues (the names and identities have been changed to protect the innocent).

Shout from over a cube wall: Does anyone know of a good Eclipse UML plugin?

I get up to investigate the source of the question.

Me: What do you want to do with UML?

Andy (original shouter): Dave asked me to put together a proposal for the web service I just wrote.

Me: A proposal? For something you already implemented?

Andy: Yep.

Me: Is it in production?

Andy: Yep.

Me: So why do you need a proposal?

Andy (now appearing annoyed that I am asking him a bunch of questions that do not address his original question): Dave needs to get Tom to sign off on the app, and he wont do it unless it is "fully" documented. So Dave wants me to make the document so large that Tom wont want to read it.

Me: Does make any sense you?

Andy: This is just the way it is.


I just walked away. I really wanted to help Andy, but more so I wanted him to be as upset as I was. The fact that management, or anyone for that matter, would value his time, energy, and talent so little, as to make him knowingly produce something that has no attainable benefit to anyone is a shame.