His research was a product of his times when programming/coding was considered a clerical job with the real brain work being done by System Analysts and System Designers who produced System Requirements Specification Documents and System Design Specification Documents. He was the first to show that software development costs would outstrip hardware development costs and the importance of its Risk Management through a Spiral Model. He brought "big picture" engineering process lens to the management of software development which became "Software Engineering" today.

All of these ideas are still valid though they would need to be modified for current times given the decades of experience we have had since then. Software development at the Individual level involves creativity/art/craft/individual flair and companies must acknowledge and provide means for expression of these psychological needs. OTOH, Software development at the Company level is all about Risk Management in the service of its Business Goals and hence needs a reproducible process and associated methodologies. We need to find a balance between the two.