Method

• The Principle of Dispassionate Methodology
  • Don't get your method advice from a method enthusiast.
  • The best advice comes from the people who care more about your problem then about their solution.
• The Principle of Close-Fitting Frames
  • The purpose of a Problem Frame is to give you a good grip on the problem.
  • The Problem Frame must define and constrain the problem very closely indeed.
• The Principle of Frame Exploitation
  • A method should exploit the stipulated characteristics of the Principle Parts of its Problem Frame.
  • A good method must clearly distinguish:
    • Problem Context: Description of which is given
    • Customer's Requirement: From description of something new that has been invented.
• The Principle of Deferred Invention
  • Invention should be delayed until Description of what is already given has been completed.
• The Principle of Beneficent Difficulty
  • Difficulties, explicitly characterized and diagnosed, are the medium in which a method captures its central insights into a problem.
  • A method without limitations, whose development steps are never impossible to complete, whose stages diagnose and recognize no difficulty, must be very bad indeed.

Rational Unified Process