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

1 pointluddite992 comments

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?

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.

From my experience "yes" in that 20% of the code requires 80% of the time/resources to implement it.

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