“Laws of Software Evolution Revisited”, M. M. Lehman1996 (CS, design)⁠:

[see also a much later anecdotal followup on FEAST/2] Data obtained during a 1968 study [“The Programming Process”] of the software process led to an investigation of the evolution of OS/360 and, over a period of 20 years, to the formulation of 8 Laws of Software Evolution.

The FEAST project (Feedback, Evolution And Software Technology) recently initiated is expected to throw additional light on the phenomenology underlying these laws, to increase understanding of them, to explore their finer detail, to expose their wider relevance and implications and to develop means for their beneficial exploitation.

This paper is intended to trigger wider interest in the laws and in the FEAST study of feedback and feedback control in the context of the software process and its improvement to ensure beneficial exploitation of their potential.

See Also:

• On understanding laws, evolution, and conservation in the large-program life cycle

• Programming as Theory Building

• Oral History Interview with Terry Allen Winograd (OH #237) § SHRDLU

• Innovation and cumulative culture through tweaks and leaps in online programming contests

• Hyrum’s Law: An observation on Software Engineering

• STEPS Toward Expressive Programming Systems: “A Science Experiment”

• Interview with Donald Knuth

• Dynamic Languages Strike Back

• Best Practices: Formal Proofs, the Fine Print and Side Effects