In reaction to being involved in a large project with a number of sometimes eye-opening, sometimes tragi-comic experiences with formal design methods I have been toying about writing a sort of Against Method article. In the meantime, I have come across several quotes that actually prove that it is really hard write anything without reinventing the wheel.
Katie Lucas writes:
Every methodology I've come across has, at its kernel, a very small section labelled "do magic here". [...] it's like having a methodology for running the 100m[:] "Step 1: write about running really fast. Step 2: Go and draw a plan of the racetrack. Step 3: go and buy really tight lycra shorts. Step 4: run really, really, really fast. Step 5: cross line first" It's that step 4 that's the tough one. But if you put lots of emphasis on 1,2,3 and 5 it's possible no-one will notice.
Meanwhile, Grady Booch has a different explanation of the 'magic':
The difficulty of design, therefore, lies in choosing which design and architectural patterns we should use to best balance the technical, economical, business, political, and emotional forces that swirl around every software-intensive system.Posted by Jiri at March 11, 2005 05:23 PM | TrackBack