At ProductSight, we've really had a hard time coming up with a good SystemMetaphor.

From the XpSeattle user group meetings, it seems that other teams also struggle with the formulation of a SystemMetaphor. It was somewhat encouraging to read MartinFowler's Xp2000 keynote (IsDesignDead) in which he admits to not having the hang of this metaphor thing.

At ProductSight, we have a pair of ''Cartoons'' (or drawings) of our system on white boards. The cartoons are a rough sketch of the system that we use when talking about where we are going to add classes and how they inter-relate. One cartoon looks a little like UML ... the other a little like a sequence diagram.

Although a real verbal metaphor would be better, having ''something'' helps.

--EricHerman
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CategoryMetaphor