On my first programming job in the 80’s I came across this advice:

 

“There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies.”

 

“The first method is far more difficult. It demands the same skill, devotion, insight, and even inspiration as the discovery of the simple physical laws which underlie the complex phenomena of nature. It also requires a willingness to accept objectives which are limited by physical, logical, and technological constraints, and to accept a compromise when conflicting objectives cannot be met. No committee will ever do this until it is too late.”

 

“The Emperor’s Old Clothes” by C.A.R. Hoare, 1981.

 

This still applies despite the modern software development tools we have today. I have worked on software maintenance on more than one program, dirty systems all, that made it extremely difficult to find and correct errors or to add new features, a fix in one place often breaking something elsewhere in the program.

 

I have also had the pleasure of working with teams that designed and coded programs that passed rigorous acceptance tests on the first pass.