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Software laws to follow

· 2 min read
Nelson Costa
Nelson Costa
Backend Developer and Data Engineer

Some of the most import software laws and psychological behaviours to know.

Laws​

Goodhart's Law​

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to become a good measure

Murphy's Law​

Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

Conway's Law​

Organizations design systems that mirror their own communication structure

Amdahl's Law​

The performance improvement gained by optimizing a single part of a system is limited by the fraction of time that the improved part is actually used

Parkinson's Law​

Work expands to fill the time available for its completion

Brooks's Law​

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later

Segal's Law​

A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure

Cunningham's Law​

The best way to get the right answer from a community is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer

Humphrey's Law​

The user will never know what they want until after they use it (and maybe not even then)

Psychological effects​

Bystander Effect​

Everyone assuming someone else will take action, leading to inaction from everyone

Confirmation Bias​

People tend to favor information that confirms their preexisting beliefs and dismiss information that contradicts them

Sunk Cost Fallacy​

People will continue investing time, money, or effort into something simply because they’ve already invested so much, even if it's no longer the best choice.

Foot-in-the-Door Phenomenon​

People are more likely to agree to a large request if they have already agreed to a smaller one beforehand

False Consensus Effect​

People tend to overestimate how much others share their beliefs, opinions, or behaviors