Gall's law
Encyclopedia
Gall's Law is a rule of thumb
from John Gall's Systemantics
: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail:
Systemantics (a change in typography and underlining indicate that the title is better rendered as SystemANTICS) is a commentary on systems theory and general semantics publications by such thinkers as Ludwig von Bertalanffy
and Alfred Korzybski
.
Although dubbed Gall's Law by some, the actual quote is not labeled as such in the original work. The work cites Murphy's Law
and the Peter Principle
and is filled with similar sayings.
Although the quote may seem to validate the merits of simple systems, it is preceded by the qualifier "A simple system may or may not work." (p. 70).
This philosophy can also be attributed to Extreme Programming
, which encourages doing the simplest thing first and adding functionality later.
Rule of thumb
A rule of thumb is a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation. It is an easily learned and easily applied procedure for approximately calculating or recalling some value, or for making some determination...
from John Gall's Systemantics
Systemantics
Systemantics is a text by John Gall in which he proposes several "laws" of systems' failures. Systemantics is a play on words on semantics, systematics and systems display antics....
: How Systems Really Work and How They Fail:
Systemantics (a change in typography and underlining indicate that the title is better rendered as SystemANTICS) is a commentary on systems theory and general semantics publications by such thinkers as Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Ludwig von Bertalanffy
Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy was an Austrian-born biologist known as one of the founders of general systems theory . GST is an interdisciplinary practice that describes systems with interacting components, applicable to biology, cybernetics, and other fields...
and Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Korzybski
Alfred Habdank Skarbek Korzybski was a Polish-American philosopher and scientist. He is remembered for developing the theory of general semantics...
.
Although dubbed Gall's Law by some, the actual quote is not labeled as such in the original work. The work cites Murphy's Law
Murphy's law
Murphy's law is an adage or epigram that is typically stated as: "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong". - History :The perceived perversity of the universe has long been a subject of comment, and precursors to the modern version of Murphy's law are not hard to find. Recent significant...
and the Peter Principle
Peter Principle
The Peter Principle states that "in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence", meaning that employees tend to be promoted until they reach a position at which they cannot work competently. It was formulated by Dr. Laurence J...
and is filled with similar sayings.
Although the quote may seem to validate the merits of simple systems, it is preceded by the qualifier "A simple system may or may not work." (p. 70).
This philosophy can also be attributed to Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming
Extreme programming is a software development methodology which is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements...
, which encourages doing the simplest thing first and adding functionality later.
See also
- Sowa's Law of StandardsJohn F. SowaJohn Florian Sowa is the computer scientist who invented conceptual graphs, a graphic notation for logic and natural language, based on the structures in semantic networks and on the existential graphs of Charles S. Peirce. He is currently developing high-level "ontologies" for artificial...
- Extreme ProgrammingExtreme ProgrammingExtreme programming is a software development methodology which is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements...