Big Design Out Back

Not unobviously, an attempt to save the baby of BigDesignUpFront while throwing out the bathwater.

From OptimisticProgrammingSkunkworks - day 20030108:

BigDesignOutBack is sort of a shacking up of XP and architecture. Impossible, you say. And you're right. The key is that the architectural model is not implemented -it's a pure Platonic form. Implementation proceeds according to strict XP principles.

Into the BigDesignOutBack go all the good old noun/verb entity/relation business model things we would be building in a WaterFall methodology, e.g., in the RUP UseCase analysis process. It evolves with every new UserStory. We get to play with all the cute UML diagrams and whatever without fear of a RealitySmackDown.

There are two uses for BigDesignOutBack:

• comparison to the evolving structure of the implemented apps/system
• a basis for predicting (and even suggesting) new UserStories.

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Can be seen as an elaboration of the residue of the game and intermediate products as described in SoftwareDevelopmentAsaCooperativeGame.

[More to come -- TomRossen]