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Revision as of 22:54, 4 August 2006
Essay on editing Misplaced Pages | This is an essay. It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Misplaced Pages contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Misplaced Pages's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints. | Shortcut
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Instruction creep occurs when instructions increase in size over time until they are unmanageable. It is an insidious disease, originating from ignorance of the KISS principle and resulting in overly complex procedures that are often misunderstood, followed with great irritation or ignored.
The fundamental fallacy of instruction creep is thinking that people read instructions. What's more, many bureaucracies also arise with the deliberate intent, as alternatives to regulations; this is almost always noticed by the other side, and tends to antagonize. It tends to antagonize even when it appears to the instigator that he's acting with proper intent.
Instruction creep is common in complex organizations where rules and guidelines are created by changing groups of people over extended periods of time.
Instruction creep on Misplaced Pages
Instruction creep begins when a well-meaning user thinks "This page would be better if everyone was supposed to do this" and adds more requirements.
Procedures are popular to suggest but unpopular to follow, due to the effort to find, read, learn and actually follow the complex procedures.
Page instructions should be pruned regularly. Gratuitous requirements should be removed as soon as they are added. All new policies should be regarded as instruction creep until firmly proven otherwise.
See also
- Creeping featurism — when a computer program ends up doing more and more.
- Functionality creep — when a physical document or procedure ends up serving unexpected or unplanned purposes.
- Red tape
- Bureaucracy
Source
This page was inspired by the meta-wiki concept: m:instruction creep.
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