This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Laurent Bossavit. Original Post: If design is the answer, what is the question ? Feed Title: Incipient(thoughts) Feed URL: http://bossavit.com/thoughts/index.rdf Feed Description: You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all alike. You're in a maze of twisty little decisions, all different. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Laurent Bossavit Latest Posts From Incipient(thoughts)

I've always liked Frank Patrick's take on project management: Frank asks, "If project management is the answer, what is it an answer to ? What is the question ?" And the question is - "What should I be working on ?"

Frank's concern with finding the appropriate question - not just the answer - stems, I think, from a frustration with discussions of the "how's" and "why's" of project management techniques - discussions which can easily lose sight of why our projects need managing in the first place. You may not agree that the above is the question which project management needs to answer. But knowing what question needs answering focuses your search for answers.

We could take the same tack with respect to issues of software design. After following endless discussions on aspects of software design ranging from "Is it actually the case that coupling is bad and cohesion is good" to "Is all duplication actually bad" to "How should one represent association, composition and aggregation" - it is a good thing to come up for air once in a while and ask, What is the question ? Good design principles in software are the answer, but the answer to what ?

I'm not going to answer that today.