Bikeshedding occurs when a development team spends a disproportionate amount of time and effort on a trivial or unimportant detail of a system, such as the color of a bikeshed. …

The Golden Hammer is a methodological software anti-pattern in which a team which is very familiar with a particular tool or methodology uses that tool or methodology as a solution to every problem they encounter. It originates from a popular phrase: “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks…

A Boat Anchor is a programming anti-pattern that occurs when a part of a system is kept in that system despite it no longer having any use. Generally this is because of developer belief (or prior experience) that they’ll need it later. This belief is almost always wrong. The solution…

A Big Ball of Mud is a software design anti-pattern in which a software system lacks a perceivable structure. This means that, to an outside observer, the system has no discernable architecture, and as such, looks thrown-together, haphazard, and is a massive pain to maintain. Big balls of mud are…

Cargo Cult Programming is a methodological anti-pattern in which developers include code in a system, but do not know or understand the reasoning why that code needs to be included; they only know that by including said code, the program works as intended. The term originates from actual cargo cults…

Death by Planning is a management anti-pattern that occurs when a project is planned so thoroughly that the development team runs out of time to actually build it. The problem is that the teams involved in this anti-pattern believe they need to know everything before than can start building. This…

A God Object in software development occurs when a single class (or other item) either knows too much or does too much (or, for extra fun, both). The solution to this anti-pattern is fairly straightforward and rather ironic: smite the God object. Although you may prefer the term “refactor”. The Rundown Name…

A Stovepipe Enterprise is a management anti-pattern that happens when different groups in a single company are responsible for designing their own systems from the ground up, completely independently of the other groups, and with no cross-group direction. …

Lava Flow is a programming anti-pattern that occurs when code which works, but isn’t well documented or understood by its maintainers, is kept in a system because it works. In other words, lava flow is any code which is kept around because no one has the time or willingness to…