Desirable Design Characteristics (Things Your Design Should Favor)

Regardless of the size of your project or what process you use to do your design, there are a number of desirable characteristics that every software design should have. These are the principles you should adhere to as you consider your design. Your design doesn't necessarily need to exhibit all of these characteristics, but having a majority of them will certainly make your software easier to write, understand, and use.

• Fitness of purpose. Your design must work, and work correctly in the sense that it must satisfy the requirements you've been given within the constraints of the platform on which your software will be running. Don't add new requirements as you go – the customer will do that for you.