Good Fortune

Methodologists look at development process in detail to try to iron out what it is we actually do, ostensibly so that we can learn to do it better and so that we can teach others to do what already works. Sometimes a successful process includes a blind leap of faith, usually followed by a validation. This leap of inspiration comes from someplace mysterious. It's convenient to just designate it as GoodFortune in our descriptions of method, since we currently lack the tools to really explore this territory.

For instance, you are working on a complex problem and out of nowhere comes a thought about another system, barely similar on the surface. But that other system contains a pattern that applies to the one under study. No one knows what made you associate like that, and it doesn't seem to be a process we can control. So I'll call it GoodFortune. Tough problems always require a dose of this -- it's what makes them tough. --WaldenMathews