second-system effect


second-system effect

(Sometimes, more euphoniously, "second-system syndrome") Whenone is designing the successor to a relatively small, elegant,and successful system, there is a tendency to become grandiosein one's success and design an elephantine feature-ladenmonstrosity. The term was first used by Fred Brooks in hisclassic "The Mythical Man-Month. It described the jump froma set of nice, simple operating systems on the IBM 70xxseries to OS/360 on the 360 series. A similar effect canalso happen in an evolving system; see Brooks's Law,creeping elegance, creeping featurism. See alsoMultics, OS/2, X, software bloat.