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.
From the Book The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering, 1975, ISBN 0201835959
Copyright © 1975 by Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
No. 43