LESS IS MORE. It's a quite trite little maxim, but sometimes it really is true.
- It was a fun bit of extra stuff, and the programmer wanted to write it. (Hint: Write code because it adds value, not because it amuses you.) Someone thought that it might be needed in the future, so felt it was best to code it now. (Hint: That isn't YAGNI. If you don't need it right now, don't write it right now.)
- It didn't appear to be that big an "extra," so it was easier to implement it rather than go back to the customer to see whether it was really required. (Hint: It always takes longer to write and to maintain extra code. And the customer is actually quite approachable. A small, extra bit of code snowballs over time into a large piece of work that needs maintenance.)
- The programmer invented extra requirements that were neither documented nor discussed in order to justify the extra feature. The requirement was actually bogus. (Hint: Programmers do not set system requirements; the customer does.)
