Simplicity – Always strive for a simpler solution.

This is a principle I have held and have used for many years in my technology based profession.

It’s very surprising that many organizations when addressing a problem forget to look at what is indeed right infront of them. The same is said about solving a technology problem. When I first heard about Agile Methodology practices in eXtreme Programming (XP) in 1999, I was quick to adopt this approach, because for no other words, it simplified the software development approach. It used a common sense, was practical and provided a test driven approach to improving quality which is key to successful software.

I was reading To Change Effectively, Change Just One Thing where Peter Bregman states “Just simplify it. Reduce it to its essence.” and ” The brilliance is rarely in the model, it’s in the implementation.” I’d encourage you to read the full article which has several valuable reference points.

The KISS – Keep it simple, stupid principle is something you should practice daily. Not just in your job, but in your life.