I came across a really interesting paper the other day on the lifecycle of software projects. So much of it resonated with what I see today, which is especially surprising that the paper appeared in the IEEE Journal 41 years ago! Meir "Manny" Lehman, the author, laid out five different laws he observed in IBM's programming process, where he worked in the research division. I've copied them here, with a short remark on how I interpret them working in today's developer world.