Color of the bikeshed

The color of the bikeshed is a proverbial phrase referring to the apparent ease with which one can get agreement on building a large and complex project—such as a billion-dollar atomic reactor—compared to the difficulty of reaching consensus on building something conceptually simple—such as a bikeshed. The inference is that when something simple is being argued, everyone involved actually has an opinion and wants to add it. In contrast, when proposing something difficult or complex, the community will make few comments because they don't understand the underlying complexity.

The most well-known expression of the idea is C. Northcote Parkinson's Law of Triviality, in his spoof of management, Parkinson's Law (1957), which is the source of the bicycle shed metaphor. Parkinson dramatizes his Law of Triviality with a committee's deliberations on a nuclear power plant, compared to deliberation on on a bicycle shed. While discussing the bikeshed, debate emerges over whether the best choice of roofing is aluminium, asbestos or galvanized iron, then over whether the shed is a good idea or not. The committee then moves on to coffee purchasing, a discussion that results in the biggest waste of time and the most acrimony.

A nuclear reactor is so vastly expensive and complicated that people cannot understand it, so they assume that those working on it understand it. Even those with strong opinions might withhold them for fear of being shown to be insufficiently informed. On the other hand, everyone understands a bicycle shed (or thinks they do), so building one can result in endless discussions: everyone involved wants to add his touch and show that he is there.

The concept was repopularized by a 1999 email post by Poul-Henning Kamp to the FreeBSD development mailing list. Color was not featured as an argument in Parkinson's original example.

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