On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 2:55 PM, Stephen Cameron <steve.cameron.62@g...> wrote:

Maybe a failure is actually necessary to be able to acknowledge these facts and then that failure contains the seeds of success in a second attempt. The failure becomes a discarded prototype. What is perhaps worse is something that is "made to work" because of costs already committed, but which then is a nightmare for ongoing refinement (maintenance is a bad term from waterfall). This is what Domain Driven Design is aimed specifically at preventing I understand.

Stephen,

I think there's something profound in this statement. Not all prototypes are successful. Occasionally you will have an Edsel moment, when despite the good intentions of everyone involved you produce a clunker. In a prototype-centered world, you swear a blue-streak when that happens, pick up the pieces, and figure out what went wrong (almost invariably because deep assumptions you made were erroneous). In many respects the failures are useful in figuring out what's not working, which successes often mask. 

Kurt Cagle
Invited Expert, XForms Working Group, W3C

Managing Editor, XMLToday.org

kurt.cagle@g...

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