Kidney Stone Software Development Process 

The "Kidney Stone Software Development Process" is a degenerate process where releasing software to the field is incredibly painful but eventually "passes" and reaches customers. Developers within the process find that once the code portion of the project is complete, there are so many gates held by so many other internal groups that the software must first pass through, including peer review, quality assurance, documentation, not to mention possible conflicting schedules of other teams, product owners and managers, that the customers may not see the finished product for a long time. The process is akin to passing the proverbial kidney stone - incredibly painful, but eventually, it passes through.

We use the Kidney Stone Software Development Process at work; I'm still shepherding the finished code through multiple painful gates - who knows when this will actually ship.

Kidney Stone Software Development Process by Spokko April 10, 2019