Ninety-Ninety Rule

humour "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)