Design of Design - Chapter 19

Brooks opens this chapter talking about constraints. He tells us that constraints can be a good thing that challenge a designer's thinking, or they can be bad things that make a designer's life exceptionally difficult. Different types of constraints have to be identified, so Brooks lists four different types: real, obsolete, incorrectly perceived as real, and intentionally artificial. Two of these are quite obvious, but obsolete and incorrectly perceived constraints are less obvious. Brooks explains obsolete constraints by alluding to old size constraints that programmers had to adhere to in the past. He then explains incorrectly perceived constraints with several figures. Brooks then gives us an interesting idea. He says that specialized designs with tight constraints are easier than general-purpose designs with loose constraints.