One of the things I've been trying to do is look for simpler or rules underpinning good or bad design. I think one of the most valuable rules is avoid duplication. "Once and only once" is the Extreme Programming phrase.

Now I'm a pretty lazy person and am prepared to work quite hard in order to avoid work.

Why is composing symphonies tough? I don't know. It's just very few people in the world can do it well. And I think that's the case with upfront design. It is very hard to do well.

So I hope I’ve made clear that imposing agile methods is a very red flag.

In almost all cases, I’m opposed to setting aside time for refactoring. In my view refactoring is not an activity you set aside time to do. Refactoring is something you do all the time in little bursts.

Comprehensiveness is the enemy of comprehensibility.

The biggest issue on software teams is making sure everyone understands what everyone else is doing.