NewsAre Programming 'Laws' Valid?

Are Programming ‘Laws’ Valid?

Developer.com content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More.

Does conventional wisdom about programming accurately reflect what happens in the real world? In a new piece for Dr. Dobb’s, software engineering expert Capers Jones examines some of the maxims that are often repeated among developers to see whether data supports them. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Boehm’s Second Law: Prototyping significantly reduces requirements and design errors, especially for user errors. True if the prototype is 10 percent the size of the planned system.
  • Brooks’ Law: Adding people to a late software project makes it later. Mostly true.
  • Wirth’s Law: Software performance gets slower faster than hardware speed gets faster. Not true.
  • Yannis’ Law: Programming productivity doubles every six years. Partially true.

View article

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Developer Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Latest Posts

Related Stories