Excellent article from Martin Fowler about the dangers of using metaphoric reasoning when comparing professions. To quote Martin
... it all comes down to how you use the metaphor. Comparing to another activity is useful if it helps you formulate questions, it's dangerous when you use it to justify answers.. However, while I agree with the sentiment of the article I think there's a place for metaphoric reasoning in justifying answers aswell. For example lean manufacturing involves the reduction & indeed elimination of inventory in order to reduce unnecessary costs & improve manufacturing responsiveness. It depends on how you bound and interpret the analogy. Understanding both the articles and the aims. A certain amount of inventory will always be required "in the pipeline" to enable manufacturing to take place. In the same way that an amount of upfront documentation is required. Complete elimination of either is not the real goal, it's optimisation of the manufacturing process through waste reduction & more appropriate & flexible task scheduling.