Somewhere along the line I picked up the habit to find forces in the all the potential but unacceptable solutions.  People are often very bad at saying why something works, or what forces act to drive them to a solution, but they typically are very good at saying why something doesn't or can't work. ... and that is exactly one of the forces you are busy balancing in the pattern you are writing, a force which drives you toward your solution.  So consider brainstorming plausible but unacceptable solutions, and write down why they are unacceptable.  You might even get 'not too big, but not too small'.

I use this on myself, and have used it on other people, it has worked pretty well so far (let's see, there ought to be some forces in here somewhere...)  --AlistairCockburn
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CategorySolutions