>> you lay out a huge specification that would fully work through all of the complexity in advance, then build it.

> This has never happened and never will. You simply are not omniscient. Even if you're smart enough to figure everything out the requirements will change underneath you.

I am one of those "battle-scarred twenty-year+ vets" mentioned in the article, currently working on a large project for a multinational company that requires everything to be specified up-front, planned on JIRA, estimates provided and Gantt charts setup before they even sign the contract for the next milestone.

I've worked on this project for 18 months, and I can count on zero hands the times a milestone hasn't gone off the rails due to unforeseen problems, last-minute changes and incomplete specifications. It has been an growing headache for the engineers that have to deliver within these rigid structures, and it's now got to the point that management itself has noticed and is trying to convince the big bosses we need a more agile and iterative approach.

Anyone who claims upfront specs are the solution to all the complexity of software either has no real world experience, or is so far removed from actual engineering they just don't know what they're talking about.