The paper reasons that following a strict process is unrealistic, but that it is still worth it to "fake" a process, by presenting your system to others as though you had followed it (for example through documentation and reports that mimic the waterfall process, presented to players such as the VP and Director of Marketing in the OP).
[1] http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/presentatio...
The most interesting thing is that this paper was published before I was born in 1986. Even so, everyone in my class (this was about 18 months ago) was in agreement that the paper was still valid. (Though there would be the reasonable argument that we weren't able to give informed opinions having yet to experience software engineering in the real world at that point)