Finance:Tree swing cartoon

From HandWiki
Short description: Product design joke
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

  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. https://books.google.com/books?id=MjvORrOl-AoC&pg=PT127. 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. https://books.google.com/books?id=kDpgXRBA_CcC&pg=PA61. Retrieved 19 July 2013. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Origins of the tree swing pictures". BusinessBalls.com. http://www.businessballs.com/treeswing.htm. Retrieved 2018-10-15. 
  4. ↑ Cindy Dell Clark (16 May 2009). Transactions at Play. University Press of America. pp. 135–. ISBN 978-0-7618-4486-0. https://books.google.com/books?id=jcHOugXx33wC&pg=PA135. Retrieved 19 July 2013. 
  5. ↑ "The Classic "Tree Swing" Example of Production and Customer Service Gone Awry". Encyclopædia Britannica Blog. Encyclopædia Britannica. http://blogs.britannica.com/2009/10/the-classic-tree-swing-example-of-production-and-customer-service-gone-awry. Retrieved 19 July 2013. 
  6. ↑ "Origins of the tree swing pictures (new versions)". BusinessBalls.com. http://www.businessballs.com/treeswing.htm. Retrieved 2013-07-19. 
  7. ↑ Serengul Smith-Atakan (2006). Human-Computer Interaction. Cengage Learning EMEA. pp. 52–. ISBN 978-1-84480-454-2. https://books.google.com/books?id=tjPHVhncBzYC&pg=PA52. Retrieved 19 July 2013. 



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