creeping featurism

n.

The tendency for complex systems to become even more complex over time due to the constant addition of new features.

Example Citations:

Features sell. Long ago, Microsoft recognized that features sell software not code size, efficiency, or even a pretty interface. Features. In the old days of software competition, to compete with Microsoft, you would put up a features chart and a side by side comparison of your product to the Microsoft offering. When your product was faster, you'd sell speed as a feature. Microsoft would counter by copying the same features and combining them with those of another competitor's product. Nobody could match Microsoft for adding features. And when Microsoft couldn't add features, it would say it added them and just not implement them, knowing people were buying software based on the claimed features, not on any real usefulness of these features.

In the 1980s, the term creeping featurism was coined. It's now become part of the landscape.

— John C. Dvorak, "Microsoft, Innovation, and Linux," PC Magazine, January 1, 2003

The tendency for fancy software add-ons, called "creeping featurism", is also a hidden menace. The more functions a program boasts, the harder it is for a user to find the one he or she needs.

— Anjana Ahuja, "A price we must pay for progress," The Times, June 18, 1997

Earliest Citation:

Since mainframes have been around longer, the software development process has been fairly well defined.

On the other hand, micro software is often written on the fly. For micros, "the process used in development is pretty crude," Miller said.

He calls the phenomenon "creeping featurism." The program's originators start out with one objective and end up tacking on more features as the program is written.

— Avery Jenkins, "In search of PC software standards," PC Week, October 23, 1984

Related Words:

feature fatigue

instant on

mission creep

SPF creep

Category:

Technology (General)

The term "creeping featurism" was used in a 1976 Programmer's Workbench paper I wrote, and in a talk first done in 1977, and later gave (as an ACM National Lecture) about 50-70 times through 1982. The original foils were scanned in 2002, and the phrase is used on Slide 033 within the talk.

I've lost the cartoon pair that went with this: the first, a smiling little innocent baby feature, the second, the monstrous tentacled adult creature.

I can't recall if I actually coined this myself or heard it somewhere, but in any case, the phrase was certainly in public use by 1976.

Article:

http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=807670 Abstract:

"In line with the philosophy of much existing UNIX software, an attempt has been made to add new features only when they are shown necessary by actual user experience in order to avoid contaminating a compact, elegant system through “creeping featurism.”"

Talk:

http://www.usenix.org/events/bsdcon/mashey_small/sld033.html