Software Architect's Handbook

Minimizing complexity

Building software is inherently complex and a number of problems result from complexity. Higher levels of complexity in software:

• Cause delays in schedules
• Lead to cost overruns
• May cause the software to behave in unintended ways or lead to an unanticipated application state
• May create security loopholes or prevent security issues from being discovered in a timely fashion
• Are a predictive measure of lower levels of some quality attributes, such as lower maintainability, extendibility, and reusability

In The Mythical Man-Month, Fred Brooks divides the problems facing software engineering into two categories, essential and accidental:

"All software construction involves essential tasks, the fashioning of the complex ...