Perception is reality

In teams as well as in organizations, perception is reality. If they are using an Agile tool like storymapping, the way it's done in their organization is their reality. 

Can you blend the techniques of storymapping and into a waterfall process? While my gut immediately say "no" it's not pure Agile it will fail. Why would it fail?

The storymapping would include working software, development and testing in the same story thus removing the sequential nature of the develop, then test in a waterfall scenario.

I'm exploring the why behind the "No" it won't work...It's an innate gut reaction from me...here's some questions, but not too many conclusions

- Organization could experiment with it and see what comes out of it. This experiment will expose what the team doesn't see, doesn't know about what they are doing. It will highlight gaps, even having the whole team in the room revealed the unknown which is a step in the right direction. 

- Blend it into their waterfall process, right in between the high level sizing and "Doing" the work...bit will it help?

- Can it work if they aren't in sprints?

- If they do not execute the stories as planned out in the storymapping excercise, will it fail?

- Is the mindset shift trully there from the team?

-  Can the teams perform the work and  make the switch that quickly if their organization hasn't fully committed to transforming the entire organization.

The reality is when organizations tiptoe into Agile, using parts of it and different techniques without committing to it completely, they normally fail. Then their perception becomes, Agile won't work in our organization. Their exposure and experience become fragmented to actually seeing it work well.