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    <p>Some metaphors...</p> <ul> <li><p>Complexity-wise, it's kind of <strong>like building a car</strong>, or boat, from scratch, by yourself. Software projects that <em>require</em> a team of engineers are like <strong>building the space shuttle</strong>. The only difference being that if you foul things up, people don't usually die. If peoples' lives are at stake, it's even more like the space shuttle. (Software is almost never as cool as rocketships, though.)</p></li> <li><p>It's true that your software project isn't the Sistine Chapel (what is?), but it <em>is</em> kind of like building a freight management system, which is itself incredibly complex. You could draw some diagrams on a whiteboard or happen to carry around system design and dataflow diagrams. <strong>Help them see.</strong></p></li> <li><p>Ask, "have you ever <strong>built a computer</strong>?" Selecting and ordering all the components, building the computer, selecting and installing operating software, device drivers, configuring the final result will all take less time and be far less complicated than this freight management project.</p></li> </ul> <p>The advice about relating it to something they do is good, but make sure you understand enough about what they do to <strong>make an adequate analogy</strong>. If they're a trained mechanic and you said it's comparable to rebuilding a carburetor (instead of, say, an automatic transmission), they might think "okay, so it's not very complicated."</p> <p><a href="http://www.neilernst.net/archives/2006/a-new-metaphor-for-software-development/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Neil Ernst talks about software metaphors a bit</a>, applicability of the home contracting metaphor, and also makes the points out that <strong>software engineering is inherently hard to explain</strong> because it is <em>work in the abstract</em>.</p> <p>Neil links to an essay by Jim Waldo, <a href="http://www.artima.com/weblogs/viewpost.jsp?thread=7600" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Software Engineering and the Art of Design</a>, in which he points out</p> <blockquote> <p>In this way, what we call software engineering is really more like architecture (real architecture that produces buildings) than it is like other kinds of engineering. There is an element of science (a building has to obey the laws of physics) but there is also a large element of art. Depending on what kind of software you produce, the mix of the two may differ some, but there is always a mix.</p> </blockquote> <p>So, perhaps grand architectural and building feats are an apt metaphor. (Not that what we do comes close to the Sistine Chapel, but we should approach what we do with that in mind.)</p> <p>Unfortunately the person who dismisses your project as trivial is unlikely to understand this. They might not be able to think abstractly enough to <em>get it</em>. The best you can hope for is that they kind of grasp the car or boat or house analogy, or maybe help them to <em>see</em> it with diagrams.</p> <p>Edit: You made a point about the relative complexity between your project and "drawing controls on a form." Perhaps you could respond to the Sistine Chapel remark by saying "that's true. However, if a three month web project is the small shed behind your house, this freight management system is <strong><a href="http://canada.archiseek.com/ontario/toronto/skydome.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Rogers</a> <a href="http://www.rogerscentre.com/about/history.jsp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Centre</a></strong>.</p>
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    1. POAre there any good metaphors for explaining project complexity to a non-programmer?
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    1. USbill weaver
    1. USbill weaver
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    1. POAre there any good metaphors for explaining project complexity to a non-programmer?
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    1. COMaybe I should maintain a complete and comprehensive flowchart, which flows off my cubicle walls, up the real wall, and overflows onto the ceiling .... maybe that would get communicate it. If you drew a complete flowchart of a standard 100loc app, I wonder if the Sistine Chapel could even contain it all?
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    2. COAwesome answer btw, thx. +1
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    3. COThanks. I think your side-by-side flowcharts are a good idea.
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