The biggest issue on software teams is making sure everyone understands what everyone else is doing.

When you actually sit down to write some code, you learn things that you didn't get from thinking about them in modeling terms...there is a feedback process there that you can only really get at from executing some things and seeing what works

A pattern is an idea that has been useful in one practical context and will probably be useful in others.

Comparing to another activity is useful if it helps you formulate questions, it's dangerous when you use it to justify answers.

When to use iterative development? You should use iterative development only on projects that you want to succeed.

Why is composing symphonies tough? I don't know. It's just very few people in the world can do it well. And I think that's the case with upfront design. It is very hard to do well.

If you're afraid to change something it is clearly poorly designed.