The document discusses the principle of minimal design, which aims for designs that are small, efficient, and elegant. It notes that simplicity is a form of sophistication. It then addresses various issues with minimal design, such as what constitutes "minimal" and potential conflicts with other constraints like time and experience. The document provides guidance on achieving quality minimal design, including ensuring designs are clear, precise, and contain necessary complexity through suitable abstraction. It outlines characteristics of "perfect minimal" design, such as avoiding repetition and following principles like Occam's razor. The document also discusses applying minimal design concepts to areas like code, requirements, and abstraction. It indicates there is more to learn about minimal design as covered in courses on the overall AMM

1. AMMERSE – Minimal
Jonathan Crossland
Semantal Institute
jonathancrossland@gmail.com
@jcrossland

2. Principle 2 - MinimalDesign
".... is a design that is small, efficient and elegant"
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” -
Leonardo DaVinci

3. Principle 2 - MinimalDesign
".... is a design that is small, efficient and elegant"
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication” -
Leonardo DaVinci

4. Issues with Minimal
 Minimal as in least code
 Minimal as in least abstraction
 Minimal as in elegant
 Minimal as it solves the solution so stop.
 Minimal as in stupid
 Minimal within an environment
 Minimal could be extremely complex
 Minimal may take longer
 Minimal could be short sighted

5. Quality Minimal is
 Clear and Precise
 A suitable level of abstraction
 A clever abstraction
 Not over the top
 Factoring for smallest denominator
 Contains neccesary complexity
 High cohesion

6. Conflicts / Constraints
 Time
 Lack of experience
 Too Minimal is complicated
 Minimal may lack other benefits
 Coding ability
 Minimal is not minimalism

7. Perfect Minimal
 Do not repeat yourself (DRY)
 Occam's razor
 Principle of least astonishment (POLA)
 A complete solution (see Solving)
 Enhanced Fundamentals (See Agile)
 Easy to understand
 Neccesary complexity
 Elegant abstractions

8. Minimal Code
Reuse
Simplification
Syntax
Coding style
Defaults (conv/conf)

9. Minimal Design
Abstraction
Generalization
Framework

10. Minimal Requirements
MoSCoW - Must Have
Parsimony

11. Want to learn more?
And yes there is lots more..
I run courses on AMMERSE, for which this is just 1 of 7
principles.