Adrenaline Junkies and Template Zombies: Understanding Patterns of Project Behavior
by Tom DeMarco, Peter Hruschka, Tim Lister, Steve McMenamin, James Robertson, Suzanne Robertson
24. The White Line
The project uses the equivalent of the white line on a tennis court to achieve a non-arguable definition of scope.
When you watch a tennis match, you see the clean white lines marking the edge of the playing area. Any ball bouncing on or inside the line is in. All others are out. Most sports involving a ball have a white line and an official to judge whether the action is inside or outside the playing area. Apart from the occasional raised eyebrow at a line call that goes against them, the players respect the white line. The call is clear—the ball has crossed the white line, or it hasn’t.
Yet many projects have no white line—they attempt to distinguish between what is inside or outside the system with either a list of features ...
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