Brook’s Law

Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

When to use

When your boss has this brillant idea of adding yet another junior to your overdue project to help you deliver it faster.

Conway’s Law

Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

When to use

Every time there are two or more teams doing the same job. Anyway, there is little chance he will understand.

Goodhart’s Law

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

When to use

When your boss decides that from now on LOC/PR/whatever are going to be used as the metrics of individual developer performance.

Parkinson’s Law

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

When to use

Never. Always ask for more time.

Hofstadter’s Law

Hofstadter’s Law: It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter’s Law.

When to use

When your boss says, that you were given sooo much time for the project and still it somehow happened to be late.

Peter Principle

Employees are promoted based on their success in previous jobs until they reach a level at which they are no longer competent.

When to use

The best effect is when you use it in front of your newly promoted direct supervisor.

CAP Theorem

Any distributed system or data store can simultaneously provide only two of three guarantees: consistency, availability, and partition tolerance (CAP).

When to use

Doesn’t realy matter. Always works.