Edge Rewrite
// HTMLRewriter · presentation

This page was redesigned at the edge.

Cloudflare fetched the original article and streamed it through HTMLRewriter to apply an entirely new visual system without rebuilding the source page.

// request.cf · coarse context

A page that knows where it met you.

Only coarse request metadata is shown. This demo does not display or persist visitor IP addresses.

Country
US
Cloudflare location
CMH
Connection
HTTP/2
Language
Not provided

Ray ID: a22f57f7de1f79f3

Jump to content

Tree swing cartoon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A tree swing with three impractically stacked seats
"What marketing suggested"
A tree swing where the swing collides with the trunk
"What was manufactured"
A tree swing where a section of the trunk has been removed and propped up with supports, to accommodate the swing
"How maintenance installed it"
A simple tire swing
"What the customer wanted"

A tree swing cartoon or tire swing cartoon is a humorous graphical metaphor that purports to explain communication pitfalls in the division of labor in the development of a product.[1][2] It depicts how different departments implement or describe a tire swing attached to a tree, in various impractical ways: for example, "as designed by engineering" shows the swing tied to the trunk and slack on the ground.[3] The punchline is that the customer actually wanted a tire swing, when all of the previous implementations show a plank seat.[3]

The origin of this cartoon appears to be from at least the late 1960s, and possibly earlier. The original date and author are unknown, as is the exact original form.[4][5][3] Many variants of it appeared later in several books on education, software engineering and management.[6]

The cartoon has also been used to illustrate the waterfall model of software development.[7]

References

[edit source]
  1. Eric Brechner (22 July 2011). I. M. Wright's "Hard Code": A Decade of Hard-Won Lessons from Microsoft®. O'Reilly Media, Inc. pp. 127–. ISBN 978-0-7356-6488-3. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  2. Ouellette & Associates Consulting, Inc (3 October 2008). Leading IT Transformation: The Roadmap for Success. Kendall Hunt Publishing Co. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-0-7575-5833-7. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 "Origins of the tree swing pictures". BusinessBalls.com. Retrieved 15 October 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. Cindy Dell Clark (16 May 2009). Transactions at Play. University Press of America. pp. 135–. ISBN 978-0-7618-4486-0. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  5. "The Classic "Tree Swing" Example of Production and Customer Service Gone Awry". Encyclopædia Britannica Blog. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  6. "Origins of the tree swing pictures (new versions)". BusinessBalls.com. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  7. Serengul Smith-Atakan (2006). Human-Computer Interaction. Cengage Learning EMEA. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-84480-454-2. Retrieved 19 July 2013.