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Discussion on: Designing Systems

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay

UML and its relatives have a point if you're throwing specifications over the wall to another team you can't interact with directly (or vice versa). Then you really do need to have things laid out with that kind of detail.

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mortoray profile image
edA‑qa mort‑ora‑y

If you're throwing stuff over a wall then your system is doomed to failure. I know this kind of spec and hand-off approach was popular at one point, but it's basically a failed development strategy.

You need a two-way communication with the teams involved in the development of a product.

UML is attempting to patch a fundamentally flawed approach.

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay

Sure, it's flawed if not outright The Wrong Way To Do Things, but that doesn't mean it's not still happening for reasons which are often outside developers' control. And if you want to have any chance of getting something usable out of that kind of process, you need to set stuff in stone.