Spotify analogy doesn't work


So, why do I hate this so much.

It looks like a great idea, it really does - what use is *just* a wheel? Or a car without a steering wheel? All the stages of development seem reasonable.  But there's a problem. What were the requirements? A car meets a very wide range of requirements, a skateboard just a few specific ones.  What if the most important requirement was to be able to carry 3 large suitcases and 4 people 200 miles?  What's the first "prototype" there? What's the first step then?  It's beguiling and misleading to present this as it's SUCH a narrow focus of what the requirements are and what the customer will actually be able to use as the product develops.

Interestingly the picture is called "prototype".  And the end product is a car. Find me ONE car maker whose first prototype is a skateboard.

So how do car manufacturers prototype?  They may create the basic chassis with no shell and make sure that the manufacturing process works.  They will create a clay version of how the body will look.  They will create a fully working prototype without the interior panels or lights.  There are MANY MANY more ways to prototype other than delivering a motorbike when the customer wanted a car.

They may develop the engine first, or a part of the drive-train.  And drop it into a test rig.  There are plenty more software-based analogies where a vertical slice is simply just NOT possible to do.  Most of the time, yes it makes sense - but doing so just for the hell of it, no.

Of course, people will (and have) said that this picture doesn't apply universally - well, "duh", of course it doesn't.  But the problem is that a picture like that is incredibly insidious.  It's like the left-hand side of the agile manifesto.


Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan


The manifesto says that we value both sides [there is value in the items on the right], BUT, *so* many times the right-hand side is ignored because people are biased and take the manifesto out of context.  The SAME thing WILL happen with the picture.  And has already happened with it in a bunch of conversations on twitter (which was the driver for this post).

On reflection I probably don't hate it as much as I did - I just would have preferred a more correct analogy for the process of creating a new car via the means of prototyping.  Unless it's a toy car of course, in which case the analogy is probably accurate.  Apart from the bit with the motorcycle, unless that's a toy motorcycle. Context, you see, it's quite important.

/rant

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