Simplicity - Just ask why

One of the most powerful questions I ask myself (especially) and others in reviews is why is something in a project. As engineers we have a tendency to like shiny new things, elegant abstraction etc.

As is pointed out in Quoderat » Blog Archive » Burden of Proof injecting simplicity is sometimes about just asking why something should be added or why is there a need for a layer of abstraction or why is there a need to make the solution completely generic. In many cases there are very good reasons to add abstraction etc.

We need to always challenge ourselves to see if we are solving a real problem - so just ask why.