KISS principle
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The KISS principle is a popular maxim often invoked when discussing design to fend off creeping featurism and control complexity of development. The traditional expansion of this acronym is "Keep it Simple, Stupid".
Maybe because of the implied irreverence (or blatant insult, depending on perception) the acronym is rarely explained. Where concerns over the word "stupid" exist, a euphemistic explanation of "Keep It Simple and Straight-forward" is sometimes resorted to. Another, gentler, explanation for the final "S" is "sweetie" as in "Keep it Simple, Sweetie." Other expansions of the acronym include "Keep it Simple and Stupid" (often used when discussing artificial intelligence), "Keep It Small and Simple", "Keep It Short and Simple" (a common marketing maxim for sales presentations) or even "Keep it Simple, Keep It Stupid", which produces the acronym KISKIS.
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Etymology
The "KISS" acronym is known to have been in use during the Apollo project in the 1960s. Earlier etymology of the expression is uncertain. There are several theories as to its origin:
- used as a piece of advice from lawyers counseling their clients;
- invented in the U.S. Army as army slang;
- invented at the Lockheed Skunk Works facility.
Application
When dealing with a problem, there exists a frequent tendency towards excessive complexity that can lead towards solutions that are more burdensome than the problem, or clever solutions that don't handle unusual cases within that problem properly. (As an example of the former, see instruction creep.)
The KISS principle is a suggestion to avoid both. According to KISS, whenever possible, the method used should be as simple and straightforward as possible.
Modern usage
The KISS principle today is often used by software developers, meaning the software should be designed in the simplest way, and unneeded features should not be added. More particularly, it is a leading principle in designing critical low-level routines of operating system kernels (at least for Linux), where it suggests to write the code in the most simple and self-explaining manner, to avoid errors (or make it easy to find them). Some suggest that UNIX was invented by following the KISS principle.
Engineers also use the KISS principle, since the simplest solution is usually the best solution to engineering challenges.
The business community commonly uses the KISS principle when encouraging simpler business plans, simpler processes, and lower overhead.
See also
References
- This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.
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