Software Engineering
Metaphors used in the practice of building and maintaining software systems.
Entries (257)
- A La Minute metaphor
- A Place to Wait metaphor
- A Room of One's Own pattern
- Accessible Green pattern
- Accidental Complexity metaphor
- Action at a Distance metaphor
- Activity Nodes pattern
- Agent Swarm metaphor
- AI Is a Copilot metaphor
- AI Is a Pair Programmer metaphor
- AI Is a Spell Checker metaphor
- AI Is an Agent metaphor
- Alcoves pattern
- All Day metaphor
- Ansible Is Instant Communication metaphor
- Attack Surface metaphor
- Audit Trails Are Forensic Footprints metaphor
- Baklava Code metaphor
- Best Carpenters Make the Fewest Chips mental-model
- Big Ball of Mud metaphor
- Bikeshedding metaphor
- Boat Anchor metaphor
- Boil the Ocean metaphor
- Bottleneck metaphor
- Bounded Context pattern
- Breadcrumb Trail metaphor
- Brooks's Law mental-model
- Bug metaphor
- Building Complex pattern
- Building Edge pattern
- Bus Factor metaphor
- Business Ecosystem metaphor
- Cargo Cult Programming metaphor
- Cascade of Roofs pattern
- Cathedral and Bazaar metaphor
- Cease Dependence on Inspection mental-model
- Ceiling Height Variety pattern
- Chain of Responsibility pattern
- Chesterton's Fence mental-model
- Circuit Breaker pattern
- Circulation Realms pattern
- Cleaning As You Go pattern
- Cloud metaphor
- Code Is Compressed Thought metaphor
- Code Smell metaphor
- Coming to Zero mental-model
- Computer Mouse metaphor
- Connected Buildings pattern
- Connection to the Earth metaphor
- Conway's Law mental-model
- Cookie metaphor
- Daemon metaphor
- Daemon Is a Background Spirit metaphor
- Dashboard metaphor
- Data Flow Is Fluid Flow paradigm
- Data Stream metaphor
- Databases Are Warehouses metaphor
- Dead Code metaphor
- Dead Man's Switch metaphor
- Dead Plate metaphor
- Deep Magic metaphor
- Deep Reveals metaphor
- Degrees of Publicness pattern
- Different Chairs pattern
- Divide and Conquer mental-model
- Dogfooding metaphor
- Drinking the Kool-Aid metaphor
- Duck Typing metaphor
- Easter Egg metaphor
- Entrance Transition pattern
- Escape Route metaphor
- Expo pattern
- Facade pattern
- Failure Isolation Is Quarantine metaphor
- Fallacies of Distributed Computing mental-model
- Family of Entrances pattern
- Fear-Driven Development metaphor
- Filtered Light pattern
- Firewall metaphor
- Five Whys mental-model
- Flexible Office Space pattern
- Form Follows Function metaphor
- Four-Story Limit pattern
- Framework metaphor
- Front of House / Back of House metaphor
- Garbage Collection metaphor
- Garden Growing Wild pattern
- Gas Town archetype
- God Object metaphor
- Golden Hammer metaphor
- Good Materials pattern
- Gradual Stiffening metaphor
- Half-Hidden Garden pattern
- Half-Private Office pattern
- Hands pattern
- Heisenbug metaphor
- Hierarchy of Open Space pattern
- Hofstadter's Law mental-model
- Hydra Code metaphor
- Hyrum's Law mental-model
- Identifiable Neighborhood pattern
- In the Weeds metaphor
- Inspect and Correct mental-model
- Intimacy Gradient metaphor
- Jenga Code metaphor
- Jig metaphor
- Kanban paradigm
- Kernel metaphor
- Kernighan's Law mental-model
- KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) mental-model
- Knock-Down Joint metaphor
- Lava Flow metaphor
- Law of Leaky Abstractions mental-model
- Less Is More metaphor
- Let the Tool Do the Work mental-model
- Light on Two Sides metaphor
- Magic Number metaphor
- Main Entrance metaphor
- Main Gateways pattern
- Messages Are Physical Mail metaphor
- Microservices Are Biological Cells metaphor
- Microservices Are City Districts metaphor
- Middle-Out Compression metaphor
- Monkey-Patching metaphor
- Mortise and Tenon metaphor
- Murphy's Law mental-model
- Natural Doors and Windows pattern
- Necromancy metaphor
- Negative Space metaphor
- Negative Space Is as Important as Positive Space pattern
- Ninety-Nine Percent Done mental-model
- On the Fly metaphor
- Open Stairs pattern
- Ornament pattern
- Orphan Process metaphor
- Oxbow Lake metaphor
- Palantir metaphor
- Parasitic Architecture metaphor
- Patch metaphor
- Paths and Goals pattern
- Pattern Language as Shared Vocabulary paradigm
- Permission Delegation Is Genetic Inheritance metaphor
- Piecemeal Growth metaphor
- Planning Is Prime mental-model
- Platform metaphor
- Pools of Light pattern
- Positive Outdoor Space pattern
- Postel's Law mental-model
- Prep metaphor
- Process Fork metaphor
- Production Data Is Food metaphor
- Program Failure Is Bodily Failure metaphor
- Prompt Engineering Is Programming metaphor
- Proof by Exhaustion metaphor
- Prototype mental-model
- Quiet Backs pattern
- Race Condition metaphor
- Ralph Wiggum Loop archetype
- Rehearsal Is Not Performance metaphor
- Roles Are Theatrical Costumes metaphor
- Rubber Duck Debugging metaphor
- Rubber Duck Solution pattern
- Sandbox metaphor
- Scattered Work pattern
- Second-System Effect mental-model
- Secret Place pattern
- Security Violations Are Trespassing metaphor
- Services Are Autonomous Workers metaphor
- Shell metaphor
- Sheltering Roof pattern
- Shim metaphor
- Short Passages pattern
- Shotgun Debugging metaphor
- Silver Bullet metaphor
- Single Point of Failure mental-model
- Site Repair pattern
- Skunkworks metaphor
- Small Panes metaphor
- Small Services Without Red Tape pattern
- Software Development Is a Bazaar metaphor
- Software Development Is Cathedral Building metaphor
- Software Habitability metaphor
- Software Peter Principle metaphor
- Software Rot metaphor
- Spaghetti Code metaphor
- Spam metaphor
- Spike metaphor
- Staging Environment metaphor
- Standardized Work mental-model
- Strangler Fig pattern
- Street Windows pattern
- Structure Follows Social Spaces pattern
- Supply Chain Attack metaphor
- System Administration Is Feudal Lordship metaphor
- Tapestry of Light and Dark pattern
- Technical Bankruptcy metaphor
- Technical Debt metaphor
- Technical Decisions Are Judicial Rulings metaphor
- Technical Decisions Are Territory metaphor
- Tesler's Law mental-model
- The Abstract Factory Pattern archetype
- The Adapter Pattern archetype
- The Bridge Pattern pattern
- The Builder Pattern archetype
- The Chain of Responsibility Pattern archetype
- The Command Pattern archetype
- The Composite Pattern archetype
- The Decorator Pattern archetype
- The Facade Pattern archetype
- The Factory Pattern archetype
- The Flow Through Rooms pattern
- The Flyweight Pattern pattern
- The Gateway Pattern archetype
- The Interpreter Pattern archetype
- The Iterator Pattern metaphor
- The Mediator Pattern archetype
- The Memento Pattern archetype
- The Observer Pattern archetype
- The Persona archetype
- The Pipeline Pattern archetype
- The Prototype Pattern archetype
- The Proxy Pattern archetype
- The Quality Without a Name metaphor
- The Registry Pattern archetype
- The Repository Pattern archetype
- The Shadow archetype
- The Singleton Pattern archetype
- The State Pattern metaphor
- The Strategy Pattern archetype
- The Template Method Pattern archetype
- The Unit of Work Pattern archetype
- The Visitor Pattern archetype
- Thick Walls pattern
- Things from Your Life pattern
- Ticket Rail metaphor
- Tongue and Groove metaphor
- Tool Use Is Physical Manipulation metaphor
- Tooling Up metaphor
- Total Utilization mental-model
- Training Wheels metaphor
- Unix Shell metaphor
- Vestigial Structure metaphor
- Virus metaphor
- Voodoo Programming metaphor
- Web metaphor
- Window Place pattern
- Windows Overlooking Life metaphor
- Work Community pattern
- Work in Progress metaphor
- Workmanship of Certainty paradigm
- Workmanship of Risk paradigm
- Workspace Enclosure pattern
- Worse Is Better paradigm
- Yak Shaving metaphor
- Yo-Yo Problem metaphor
- Zen View pattern
- Zombie Process metaphor