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simplicity
book

simplicity

by Dave Thomas
June 2025
Intermediate to advanced
152 pages
3h 15m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from simplicity
Practice 3The Best Features Are the Ones You Don’t Ship

I can’t help it. Just like the lab rat pushing the button to get the next food pellet, I love delivering features—creating and delivering something new. In the past, I was known for delivering features the customer didn’t even know they wanted. That’s a superhero play.

It’s also ridiculously stupid.

Every feature we add to our software represents a future liability, because all that code will need to be supported, maintained, extended, and understood by new developers.

Idea 7Feature is marketing speak for future liability

Does that stop everyone adding feature after feature? No.

Should it?

Yes, sometimes.

Need-Driven Development

A basic rule for keeping software simple is Don’t write code ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9798888651704