Technical jargon: What does waterfall mean?

Oh, how simple and beautiful the world of project managers used to be. Back then, when processes still took place in an idyllic waterfall model. The memories were as enticing as a refreshing dip at the end of a hike in the valley. The images in our heads were as romantic and dreamy as airbrush posters in the rooms of adolescent boys, but no more, today we are scrumming: we are gaining meters and meters in a rough, fast, changeable way, driving forward like a bunch of dirty rugby players. Yet the waterfall model is not that old. Introduced by software developers in the 1970s, the heyday of IBM and its world-class Swiss advertising, it was the most popular model in processes worldwide for decades. It defines these in individual, successive stages, which then move slowly towards the goal like a river over rapids or waterfalls.Today, advertising and communication departments roll their eyes when the agency comes up with a project plan that only remotely looks like a waterfall: safe, but rigid. They would much rather see an agile approach with sprints and scrums and weekly meetings, "weeklys", where they can interact and place user- or client-defined alignments and adjustments in any order, so that instead of a waterfall, the project is flooded and ravaged with sprinklers and ends up looking like a trampled rugby field.

*Benno-Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner und Partner.