Ninety-Ninety Rule

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Ninety-Ninety Rule



"The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time".

An aphorism attributed to Tom Cargill of Bell Labs, and popularised by Jon Bentley's September 1985 "Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" column in "Communications of the ACM". It was there called the "Rule of Credibility", a name which seems not to have stuck.

[Jargon File]

(1995-07-14)