This seems to be a flawed analysis based off of a flawed analysis...
First, agile principles don't imply that an agile approach will always succeed where a waterfall approach will fail. It merely asserts that agile increases (not guarantees) the likelihood of success.
Second, the article's three sources didn't "proclaim that HealthCare.gov would not have failed if it had just used “modern” software practices, called agile development". The closest that comes is the third source that says, "None of these missteps would have occurred if the contractors had taken a gradual, agile approach." But in general, the articles were arguing that an agile approach would have improved matters, not guaranteed success.
Third, agile is a spectrum. People attempt agile within larger waterfall restrictions all the time. It doesn't work very well, but it still might work better than being 100% waterfall. But it doesn't change the fact that this was a project with guaranteed high traffic on launch day and a hard deadline, and a prohibition to deliver a smaller MVP early. That right there is incompatible with the purest forms of agile.
First, agile principles don't imply that an agile approach will always succeed where a waterfall approach will fail. It merely asserts that agile increases (not guarantees) the likelihood of success.
Second, the article's three sources didn't "proclaim that HealthCare.gov would not have failed if it had just used “modern” software practices, called agile development". The closest that comes is the third source that says, "None of these missteps would have occurred if the contractors had taken a gradual, agile approach." But in general, the articles were arguing that an agile approach would have improved matters, not guaranteed success.
Third, agile is a spectrum. People attempt agile within larger waterfall restrictions all the time. It doesn't work very well, but it still might work better than being 100% waterfall. But it doesn't change the fact that this was a project with guaranteed high traffic on launch day and a hard deadline, and a prohibition to deliver a smaller MVP early. That right there is incompatible with the purest forms of agile.