When doing any design work it is usually obvious that two heads are better than one.  We all recognize that designs developed by more than one person are usually superior to those developed by a singleton.  However, I've just come up with a new reason this is so.

In general, when creating a design, the goals are to:

• Solve the problem at hand (functional requirements)
• Consider how future changes will affect the design
• Consider non-functional requirements such as
• Performance
• Optimize costs related to resources and time
• Communicate intent as clearly and simply as possible

It is this last item that I'm focusing on.  If you are creating a design alone, it is often difficult to gauge whether your design communicates your intent clearly because, of course, it makes perfect sense to you.  By working with someone else, it forces you to do this "communication check" in real time.  It's similar to what I've written about in the past about how you don't really know something until you've taught it to someone else.  Being able to create a design, and being able to communicate a design are two different things, but the later is perhaps a better test to the efficacy of the design.