I just stumbled upon a blog posting by Chad Myers titled “Good Design is not Subjective.”  It’s hard for me to believe, but apparently this is a controversial subject in the software community today.   The thrust of his position is that a good design is characterised by its ability to easily maintain and enhance while a bad design is characterised by its difficulty to maintain and enhance.  A bad design exhibits characteristics of rigidity, fragility, and immobility.  It’s an interesting article, and it is reminiscent of many of the themes advocated on this blog.  A good design is the essence of agility.   A good developer knows a good design when he sees it.  Read the article.  I’m sure you’ll like it.  The comment thread is interesting as well.