3.6. Process and Role Overlap

What if your plumbing contractor started to lay out the pipes before the carpenter had a chance to rough in the walls? What if the electrician decided that he was really the best person to install the windows?

These analogies illustrate two types of undesirable process overlap that occur commonly in software projects. The first illustrates phase overlap, and the second illustrates role overlap. While some overlap in sharing ideas is good and helpful, the overlap discussed here is counterproductive. Think of it as phase trespassing.

Phase overlap is when one project phase begins before the previous one is completed. Nothing is done well if it is done before its time, before all the information is in and the groundwork ...

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