A "MacGuffin" is about the objective, about what gets the technical side of the story (which is about an emotional trajectory) going. Imagine a screen writer su

A "MacGuffin" is about the objective, about what gets the technical side of the story (which is about an emotional trajectory) going. Imagine a screen writer suggesting a story, "There is this cunning agent and this girl and they are trapped in an air bubble below the ice in Antarctica. First they are cats and dogs, but then they bond over some obstacles and fall in love." Producer, "And why are they there, in the first place?" "Um, stuff, three-letter-agencies, a microfilm perhaps…" (That's your MacGuffin.) So a MacGuffin for a software project may be like: "Boss, I see the specs, but what is this service for?" – "Stuff" – "???" – "Now, see, there's this little country, I think it's called Zamunda, and the prince really wants this, and, since he happens to know the nice of our CEO, we could make some points, if we get this right. Don't ask!" (Note: In the original form of the joke quoted by Hitchcock and as retold by Truffaut, the MacGuffin is actually a magical tool for hunting lions in Scotland, the real joke being about it remaining undisclosed. However, Hitchcock used it in terms of a story driving objective that just serves the purpose of an external motivation, a black box that could be as well empty as far as we know.)