Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules

Silver-Bullet Syndrome

Once upon a time, there was a poor widow who lived with her son, Jack. One day when they had no money for food, Jack's mother sent him to market to sell their cow.

On the way to the market, Jack encountered an old man who offered him five brightly colored beans and a plastic square for the cow. Jack was a good boy and at first he refused, but the man said that the bright beans and the plastic square were magic and were really worth 10 cows. Jack gave him the cow. The man put the beans and the plastic square into a cardboard box and said to call it a "CASE tool."

Jack ran home to find his mother. "I gave the cow to a man I met," Jack said, "and he gave me this. It's a 'CASE tool.' It's magic." He opened the cardboard box and ...