Software Design Philosophy

Pearce Neptune Ltd

Understand the underlying structure of the requirements, making effort to find common features and reduce the size/complexity of the design.
Reflect the requirement structure in the software structure, bearing in mind likely future changes to requirements.
Aim to be right first time, but design to ease fault-detection: structure the software such that errors will usually show up very early in testing. Avoid having parts of software components which will only be used in unusual combinations of circumstances.
Use the power of modern programming languages to write as close to normal English as possible, so the source of a software component reads as a natural logical expression of how it performs its function. Aim, in doing this, to make basic errors obvious from only casual checking of the program source: a missing word NOT , for instance, should usually stand out like a sore thumb.

Leanness: smaller program size - less "bloat", reducing programming and maintenance costs
Verifiability: errors found easily and early, when cheaper and quicker to fix; system testing made more rapid and thorough
Robustness: reliable running and low maintenance costs
More consistent behaviour in use: shorter learning curve for users, fewer quirks to put them off their stride
Program readability: shorter learning curve for maintenance programmers; reduced chances of subsequent errors
Amendability: ease of adding new features - more flexibility, and lower future costs