Way back when I was hearing the first inklings of agile methodologies, an OldSchool programmer-turned-manager went on a diatribe about how WaterFall was the one true way. He used the mnemonic "The CIA lives in DC", for a description of the waterfall process that formed the acronym CIADC. He obviously failed to make an impression, because I'm moving toward agility now, and can't for the life of me remember the meaning of the acronym. Can anyone enlighten me? ''Just a guess: Customer Information, Analysis, Design, Coding?'' Ahh, just enough of a mental tickle to bring it back. Thanks! I had the ADC part, but couldn't recall the first two. It was: * Customer (requirements) * Investigation (of requirements, to create a system proposal) * Analysis * Design * Coding ''You gotta love how the up-front activity - before coding starts - is broken up into '''four''' phases. While I can hazard guesses as to what the difference between "investigation", "analysis", and "design" is, the very notion makes me shudder. Plus, nowhere mentioned is testing of any sort - ugh.'' ''Besides. The CIA is in Virginia, not DC - though it's just 'cross the Potomac (and up the Parkway) from downtown DC and the capital mall area...'' ---- From Noise, Signal. I love it.