The trap: Rule beating
Rules to govern a system can lead to rule beating—perverse behavior that gives the appearance of obeying the rules or achieving the goals, but that actually distorts the system.
The way out
Design, or redesign, rules to release creativity not in the direction of beating the rules, but in the direction of achieving the purpose of the rules.
From “Thinking in Systems” by Donella H. Meadows
In this system, the rule is the number of tests that must be written weekly. The developer has a self-allotted time to be spent per week to write tests and there is an amount of time needed to write a good quality test. If the rule is changed to increase the number of tests mandated per week and the developer does not allocate more time to writing tests, then the programmer will meet the requirements of the rule by writing lower-quality tests.
