Amen! When your product requires true engineering, agile just causes you to keep chasing your tail. Engineering systems requires an engineering process and discipline, and agile is just not up to the rigor.
> Engineering systems requires an engineering process and discipline, and agile is just not up to the rigor.
Agile just means closing as many feedback feedback loops as you can as early as you can, and to preserve opportunities to course-correct for as long as you can.
All this to keep the destructive effects of surprises (which are sure to catch you) as low as possible.
This is good engineering practice, plain and simple.
Agree with you and parent. "Agile", in it's current form, is managements holy grail pursuit of commoditizing software development. It's the latest management fad to circumvent the law of fast, good and cheap. Quality software is engineered and is expensive to develop.