From my (little) experience and reading I've done so far, if I had to sum up what 'agile' is, I'd say: 'feedback'.
I'm not surprised that 'waterfall' methodologies fail - they seem to have little to no feedback built in. And for what I remember from Control Theory course, feedback is essential to control a system we don't have full knowledge about. I do believe that it's a more general principle than just about differential equations and integration.
>And for what I remember from Control Theory course, feedback is essential to control a system we don't have full knowledge about.
it works both ways - incorrectly designed feedback control loop (remember the classical example of overly sensitive steam engine control?) may make the system less stable
I'm not surprised that 'waterfall' methodologies fail - they seem to have little to no feedback built in. And for what I remember from Control Theory course, feedback is essential to control a system we don't have full knowledge about. I do believe that it's a more general principle than just about differential equations and integration.