No. 20 “What’s the happy path?”

the route where nothing breaks.

It’s the trip where everything goes right: password works, card goes through, done.

Design it first. Then the detours: typos, errors & the back button.

Map it, then list what could break.

Nobody knows who said “happy path” first. It’s long-time programmer & tester slang.

Some teams call it the sunny day scenario or the golden path.

In his 2001 book on use cases, Alistair Cockburn calls it the “main success scenario.”

• Alistair Cockburn, Writing Effective Use Cases (2001)
• Wikipedia, “Happy path”

Save this for the next time a demo only shows the happy path.