KISS

Last Update: 29.03.2018. By Jens in Developers Life | Learning | Newsletter

One of the key principles we devs violate way too often. We devs love complex systems too much.
For those unfamiliar with the acronym and principles. It stands for Keep it simple, stupid.

The principle states, that most systems work best when kept simple and thus we should avoid unnecessary complexity in designing new systems. Whatever that system might be, software, or something else.

I’ve seen and done it myself. Building software too complex with thinking too much into possible future changes. We devs love and fear complexity at the same time. We love it when we are the guy creating it and we hate it when we inherit such a system from someone else. Who hasn’t cursed the idiot who wrote the shitty code in front of us!?!

I did, definitely.

Both, cursing and writing that code.

Complexity always has a price.

Manifesting in high training time, devs fearing changes because they can’t comprehend the system anymore and many more. Yeah, there were systems where I was afraid of doing my first changes too. Most often, it wasn’t the business problems but the implemented systems. They were made too complex.

So, when we design we should keep it simple. Simpler is better. Fight complexity from the beginning. Our successors will thank us.