Principle of good enough

The principle of good enough (sometimes abbreviated to POGE) is a rule for software and systems design. It favours quick-and-simple (but potentially extensible) designs over elaborate systems designed by committees. Once the quick-and-simple design is deployed, it can then evolve as needed, driven by user requirements. Ethernet^{[citation needed]}, the Internet protocol^{[citation needed]} and the World Wide Web^{[citation needed]} are good examples of this kind of design.

This kind of design is not appropriate in systems where it is not possible to evolve the system over time, or where the full functionality is required from the start.

Quantitatively, some measure of "good enough" may be assessed by establishing both a metric and a metric cutoff (or tolerance) of one previous iteration of a design and the current one; when the metrics converge to or below the cutoff, then the specification has been satisfied.

See also

• Proof of concept
• 80:20 rule
• KISS principle
• Minimalism (computing)
• Rule of thumb
• Satisficing
• Worse is Better

External links

• The New Mantra of Tech: It's Good Enough (Gizmodo by Mark Wilson April 27, 2009)
• The Good Enough Revolution: When Cheap and Simple Is Just Fine (Wired magazine by Robert Capps August 24, 2009)