Wisen's notes

# Software entropy

Software entropy applies the idea of Entropy (thermodynamics) into software, which have a similar effect to Technical debt (economics).

# References

The Pragmatic Programmer (p. 6).

Some folks might call it by the more optimistic term, "technical debt", with the implied notion that they'll pay it back someday. They probably won't.

  • Broken windows accelerates software entropy
    • Software entropy needs active energy to be exerted to be fought (you need energy to move hot air - fridge). Unfortunately, fighting this entropy off from teams' perspective is difficult when there is a broken window (Broken windows theory) because people feel less hopeful about the effort they put in. Worse, when neglect kicks in (resulting in more broken windows), software entropy will grow faster.