Conceptual Integrity

Fred Brooks in The Mythical Man-Month: I will contend that conceptual integrity is the most important consideration in system design. It is better to have a system omit certain anomalous features and improvements, but to reflect one set of design ideas, than to have one that contains many good but independent and uncoordinated ideas. Conceptual integrity in turn dictates that the design must proceed from one mind, or from a very small number of agreeing resonant minds. Auteur Theory