The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work

I came across the phrase "The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work" italicized in a recent Tim Bray Ongoing post. Although the topic of the post was not too relevant to my work, I appreciated the concept that some solutions can be perfect and unusable. I liked the phrase itself so of course I googled it. It turns out it is associated with the Extreme Programming movement. A quick search on Wikipedia and I'm exposed to an interesting approach to solving problems with technology.

I had a professor at Library School that would often say The best is the enemy of the good. Looking back on various information management projects it is clear that the simplest solutions, even when some functionality is sacrificed, are the best. I have seen many more projects fail by making them overly complex than by adding more features and functions "just in case".