ETC can help architectural judgement

In any decision making process, it's useful to have a set of agreed decision criteria that can be used to evaluate options.

When it comes to technical design, what's important is to pick an option that's easier to change later (ETC). In absence of a good criteria, software engineers may opt for something that's more artistic (§Peacock architecture Beaumaris architecture).

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References

The Pragmatic Programmer (p. 28).

Values are things that help you make decisions: should I do this, or that? When it comes to thinking about software, ETC is a guide, helping you choose between paths.