Whiteboard Limitations In Software Engineering: A Critical Review
Whiteboards are imperfect for complex distributed system design due to static diagrams, lack of version control, and limited space/time. They can lead to information gaps, misunderstandings, and inefficient collaboration.
Remember that 👆 infamous 2022 “Twitter code review” post? I recently came across Jane Manchun Wong’s AI re-imagination of that post and it highlighted all the painful aspects of working with whiteboards. Don’t get me wrong, when trying to understand a complex distributed system there is nothing better than having someone knowledgeable walk through each part with a visual diagram. However, a drawing becomes immediately obsolete once the system architecture is changed in any way. Also, beyond the excellent top-line visual, it does not contains any of the underlying data or context needed to ma...