---
title: "The 13 software engineering laws"
url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-13-software-engineering-laws-pahg487q0
source_url: https://newsletter.manager.dev/p/the-13-software-engineering-laws
type: article
source: "Manager.dev"
published: 2025-04-01T06:08:07.531Z
updated: 2025-04-01T06:08:22.663Z
tags: ["productivity"]
reading_time: 10
upvotes: 1186
comments: 37
language: en
---

> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# The 13 software engineering laws

**[Manager.dev](https://daily.dev/sources/zaidesanton)** · 10 min read · 1186 upvotes · 37 comments

## Summary

Explore 13 key software engineering 'laws' like Parkinson’s Law, Hofstadter’s Law, Conway’s Law, and Murphy’s Law. These guidelines help engineering managers and developers understand and navigate common challenges in project estimation, team dynamics, product management, and feature creep.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://newsletter.manager.dev/p/the-13-software-engineering-laws>

## Community discussion

Top comments from developers on daily.dev.

**@ghost** · 44 upvotes

> there is a lot more laws and principles. https://github.com/dwmkerr/hacker-laws

**@pratil** · 5 upvotes

> It was a fantastic read.
> I joined back to daily dev after a long break, and so I was reading about reputation points. While reading about how to get more reputation points, I thought about Goodhart’s law (When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure).

**@bnfprime** · 4 upvotes

> I Love the Clarity with this principles. easy to follow

**@malsawmtluangachhangte** · 4 upvotes

> Of all the laws, Cunningham’s law got me. That's why i am here 😂

**@nikl** · 3 upvotes

> hehe, people love correcting other is so true, esp anonymised senior devs using their love tone.

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---

Tags: [#productivity](https://daily.dev/tags/productivity)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-13-software-engineering-laws-pahg487q0)