Imagine The Refactoring

I find this useful if someone (including myself) wants to do a GeneralPowerfulFlexibleAbstraction?. I ask them to consider what refactoring would be needed to take them from the simple immediate need to the more general one. Usually it's no big deal, so they can happily DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork. -- MartinFowler

When I do that, I often find that the refactoring would involve name changes. Sometimes I can adopt the refactored name from the beginning, while postponing the refactoring itself. This saves work later but without incurring any extra work now, other than the thinking. -- DaveHarris