Frank Carver's Punch Barrel » analogy http://blog.punchbarrel.com Frank Carver's musings about software and life Thu, 08 Dec 2011 22:58:02 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Copyright © Frank Carver's Punch Barrel 2010 frank.carver@googlemail.com (Frank Carver's Punch Barrel) frank.carver@googlemail.com (Frank Carver's Punch Barrel) 1440 http://punchbarrel.com/images/punchbarrel-144.jpg Frank Carver's Punch Barrel http://blog.punchbarrel.com 144 144 Frank Carver's musings about software and life Frank Carver's Punch Barrel Frank Carver's Punch Barrel frank.carver@googlemail.com no no The Opposite of Waterfall is Pond – A Metaphor for Agile http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2010/04/25/the-opposite-of-waterfall-is-pond-a-metaphor-for-agile/ http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2010/04/25/the-opposite-of-waterfall-is-pond-a-metaphor-for-agile/#comments Sun, 25 Apr 2010 09:29:46 +0000 Frank http://blog.punchbarrel.com/?p=1393

You have to love a good analogy. Here’s one which takes the notion of a “waterfall” development process literally, and contrasts it with a pleasant day out on a serene pond.

The Opposite of Waterfall is Pond – A Metaphor for Agile | Agile Blog: Scaling Software Agility

My favourite snippet:

Eventually, we find a place that everyone agrees looks nice and we pull the boat up on shore. Our project is complete in a way that we couldn’t have predicted exactly because we’ve never been on this particular pond before. We’re ready to set out again just as soon as we’re done with the picnic. In Pond, you always have a picnic at the end of the project.

All of which makes me smile. Back when I was working on an agile project where releases were named after ducks and other wildfowl, I proposed at one point a component named “pond” (standing for “provider of necessary data”) shared by all the deployed ducks.

Ah nostalgia.

]]> http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2010/04/25/the-opposite-of-waterfall-is-pond-a-metaphor-for-agile/feed/ 0 Steve Freeman compares Test-Driven Development to rock climbing http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2009/03/07/steve-freeman-compares-test-driven-development-to-rock-climbing/ http://blog.punchbarrel.com/2009/03/07/steve-freeman-compares-test-driven-development-to-rock-climbing/#comments Sat, 07 Mar 2009 12:08:41 +0000 Frank http://blog.punchbarrel.com/?p=1210 I love this kind of analogy. Thinking and learning about one area by considering another is a very powerful technique for boosting overall understanding and wisdom. In this case, Steve Freeman has scraped off the climbing terminology from a snippet of an article and replaced it with jargon from software development.

Thought-provoking.

Tips on Test-Driven Development | Steve Freeman

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