New Analogies For Software

Wiki has many pages that explore new, creative, maybe crazy new analogies for software:

• InformationAsCurrentAnalogy
• Journalism and drama in DisciplineEnvy
• The journalistic scoop in SuccessStatement
• MartialArtsAsSoftwareDevelopmentMetaphor
• AnalogiesFromMusic
• AnalogiesFromCookery
• JazzProgrammer
• FreeSoftwareMusicAnalogy
• SoftwareMastersOfFineArts
• FreeSoftwareLawAnalogy
• SoftwareAsRockClimbing
• CreepingObesity
• ZenConcepts
• AnalysisAsStorytelling
• SoftwareDevelopmentAsCommunityPoetryWriting
• SoftwareDevelopmentAsaCooperativeGame
• LowChurch
• SexPatterns
• The mock physics of WikiUncertaintyPrinciple
• TheCathedralAndTheBazaar
• BioAnalogies
• SoftwarePuzzleAnalogy
• ProducingCodeAsExcretingProduct

Wiki also contains critical discussion of more traditional analogies:

• ReadsLikeProse still describes an analogy for instructions to a VonNeumannArchitecture machine, forty years after Cobol
• SoftwareAndWriting
• ProgrammingAsEngineering
• SoftwareEngineering
• The very helpful fresh analysis of the engineering analogy in TheSourceCodeIsTheDesign
• AnalogyBetweenProgrammingAndManufacturing
• EngineeringEnvy
• ChiefArchitect
• ArchitectAsKeeperOfTheFlame
• SoftwareIsArt
• ProgrammingAsArt
• SoftwareDevelopmentAsCraft

In pages primarily about XP there are some great new analogies, many applying to psychological and social issues:

• The key salt water aquarium analogy in NonlinearityOfXp
• The juggler metaphor for XP adoption in NonlinearityOfXp
• TheAthleticSkier
• XpTeamCoachAnalogy
• DrivingMetaphor
• OneHandOnTheYoke
• SteerWithYourEyes
• StBenedictsRule
• ExtremeIconoclasm
• ExtremeProgrammingOnIce

Then there is some deeper reflection on metaphor and references to books dealing with it:

• SoftwareCannotBeModeled
• ConceptualMetaphor
• MetaphorsWeLiveBy
• MetaphorAndOrganizations
• FluidConceptsAndCreativeAnalogies

With all this analogy building going on, it seems worth asking WhyNewAnalogiesForSoftware.

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Here's a try: It is like building a video game where you can choose any scenario and characters you want. But, it has two catches: the characters have to ultimately produce something of value to the external world, and other video-game developers have to be able to efficiently change the game to fit new external requirements. Related: SoftwareGivesUsGodLikePowers. --top

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CategorySubjectivityAndRelativism