Christopher Alexander noticed that in Mexico building such as La Casa de los Azulejos in Mexico City attention is not paid to the laying of a single title. In fact most of the titles are not even straight. You see the craftsmen in Mexico pay attention to the over all picture, the relationship of one title to another. The collection of all the titles is what people notice, not the straightness of a single tile. The big picture is what matters, not one small detail.
In software, most of the time we fall into this trap (I know I have fallen into this trap more than a few times). We worry about the spacing in the source code, the placement of comments, the use of an UML Activity diagram over a BPMN diagram, etc. Most of the time the big overall picture is not looked at.
We should take a advise from the Mexican craftsman and focus on what matters. Does this code meet the requirements of the clients? Will this code fit into the overall enterprise? ...
-----------------------------------
Idea based on this 37signals post:
http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/1778-christopher-alexander-on-the-perfection-of-imperfection
