Prefer the simplest design that meets the requirement; complexity is paid for at every later step.
Attributed to Kelly Johnson of Lockheed's Skunk Works, who reportedly meant it as a manufacturing constraint: the aircraft must be repairable in a field by an average mechanic with basic tools.
In practice
- A product with three settings is used correctly; the same product with eleven is used on its defaults forever.
- A fire evacuation plan with two routes is followed; one with a decision tree is not.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Technology & Software
- Essay
- Design rules that engineers pass down