books

A collection of various quotations, idioms, and aphorisms - not exclusively related to software development, and not to be taken 100 percent seriously ;-)

Boehm’s First Law

Errors are most frequent during the requirements and design activities and are the more expensive the later they are removed.

(from some blog)

Clarke’s laws

  1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
  2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
  3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

(from Wikipedia)

Conway’s law

Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

(from Wikipedia)

Dunning–Kruger effect

For a given skill, incompetent people will…

  • …fail to recognize their own lack of skill
  • …fail to recognize the extent of their inadequacy
  • …fail to accurately gauge skill in others

(from Wikipedia)

Heisenbug

…a software bug that seems to disappear or alter its behavior when one attempts to study it.

(from Wikipedia)

Hofstadter’s Law

“It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law”

(from Wikipedia)

Hanlon’s razor

“Never assume malice when stupidity will suffice”

(from Wikipedia)

Parkinson’s law

“Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”

(from Wikipedia)

Peter principle

“Managers rise to the level of their incompetence”

(from Wikipedia)

Goodhart’s law

“When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” (looking at e.g. test coverage)

(from Wikipedia, see also xkcd)

to be continued…

References