Big Design Up Front

• Prior to any coding or testing, every aspect of the proposed system is analyzed and designed
• The proposed system is compartmentalized into digestable sub-systems
• Expectations are contracted with the business sponsor
• Mimics the architectural design process of the physical engineering disciplines

The only thing we know for certain about a plan is that development won't go according to it.

Kent Beck & Martin Fowler

The bad ideas and the complicated ones (they often are the same) often appear first; it takes time for the simple and the elegant to take over.

Bertrand Meyer