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From: dalamb@umiacs.umd.edu (David Lamb)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Second System Effect
Message-ID: <30512@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 21 Feb 91 16:08:27 GMT
Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu
Reply-To: dalamb@umiacs.umd.edu (David Lamb)
Organization: UMIACS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Lines: 11

In "The Mythical Man-Month", Fred Brooks (1975) described the "second system
effect": on one's second try at a particular kind of system, one tends
to add all kinds of bells, whistles, kazoos, etc., vastly
overcomplicating the software.  When I first read it, this seemed like
it had to be true, but I haven't seen anyone else discussing it.  Does
anyone else have any published references discussing such an effect?
Do y'all believe it's still a problem these days?

--

David Alex Lamb				internet: dalamb@umiacs.umd.edu


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