Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Does the Pareto (80-20) Principle apply to software complexity?

news.ycombinator.com

1–3 of 3 posts

Ask HN: Does the Pareto (80-20) Principle apply to software complexity?

#1
Particularly from the point of view of Operating Systems and Web Browsers...

For example:

Does 80% of the code come from 20% of the functionality?

Do 80% of bugs come from 20% of features?

Does 80% of software complexity come from 20% of the functionality?

Re: Ask HN: Does the Pareto (80-20) Principle apply to software complexity?

#2
I would say generally, "Yes."

Definitely 80% of the bugs will come from 20% of the features. 80% of the usability and attraction is also from 20% of the features, but not necessarily the same ones.

Perhaps relatedly, about 70% of all software work is diagnosis and debugging. So a small subset of (maybe not so important) features causes most of the overall work in the project.