Object Thinking

6. Method, Process, and Models

Caveats to keep in mind as you read this chapter:

• All methods are someone else’s idea about what you should do when you develop software. It may be useful, from time to time, to borrow from those ideas and integrate them into your own style. It is essential, however, to transcend any method, even your own idiosyncratic method, and “just do it.”

• Software development is like riding a surfboard—there is no process that will assure a successful ride, nor is there any process that will assure that you will interact propitiously with the other surfers sharing the same wave. Published processes, like published methods, provide observational data from which you can learn and thereby improve your innate abilities—just as ...