(Code) Simplicity

Urs Enzler

Published in

101 ideas for agile teams

3 min readAug 26, 2019

This post is part of 101 ideas for agile teams.

A typical reaction to lack of simplicity

Context

Your team struggles with the lack of simplicity:

work takes much longer than initially thought
side-effects of changes that looked easy at the beginning result in endless chains of changes or defects
no one understands anymore what is going on (in the software code)

There is no shared understanding of what simplicity looks like and how to achieve simple artefacts (like software code).

Action

Hold a workshop with your team and discuss the following two lists — indicators of simplicity and aspects of simplicity:

Indicators of simplicity

Small size — small things are usually simpler to understand than large things
A low number of concepts — fewer concepts are easier to comprehend
A low number of interactions — fewer interactions are easier to comprehend

Aspects of simplicity

Bounded — the whole is built from bounded pieces like e.g. modules with a well-defined API. To comprehend the whole, comprehend the parts individually and their interactions
Conciseness — not vague, abstract or generalised
Expressiveness — no guessing or assumptions
Readable — the form is optimised for readability, not writability
Understandable — it can be understood in a reasonable amount of time
Unsurprising — it behaves as one expects
Self-explanatory — everything needed to understand is included
Reassuring — it gives a feeling of safety to change and adapt it

Discuss with your team members the effects of the above aspects on your code and on your team. Then find ways to increase these aspects in your work. Work towards a common understanding of what simple means for your team.

“Keep it simple“ is a bad saying, it should be “Make it simple” because simplicity is not a state you start in, but a state that needs a lot of thought and work to achieve.

What you gain

Simpler code is code with fewer defects that can be maintained, extended or adapted more quickly because the code and potential side effects of changes are easier to understand. See the video linked below for a great explanation.

How to strengthen

Gather and visualize the benefits of simplicity. Probably, there are fewer defects due to more simplicity. Team members find better solutions faster because they understand the implications of changes better.