What ever the latest software development methodology we investigate or decide is the new defacto approach when the big project kicks in and the chips are down because of the two mistresses of cost and time we always revert to the pyramid approach:
A basic architectural design used many times before, a million 'bricks' pilled on top of each other with no thought for structure and most importantly the use of as many 'slaves' as we can fit around it to succeed by brute force!