The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003):
second-system effect
n.
(sometimes, more euphoniously, second-system syndrome) When one is
designing the successor to a relatively small, elegant, and successful
system, there is a tendency to become grandiose in one's success and design
an elephantine feature-laden monstrosity. The term was first used by Fred
Brooks in his classic The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software
Engineering (Addison-Wesley, 1975; ISBN 0-201-00650-2). It described the
jump from a set of nice, simple operating systems on the IBM 70xx series to
OS/360 on the 360 series. A similar effect can also happen in an evolving
system; see Brooks's Law, creeping elegance, creeping featurism. See
also Multics, OS/2, X, software bloat.
This version of the jargon lexicon has been described (with altogether too
much truth for comfort) as an example of second-system effect run amok on
jargon-1....
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):
second-system effect
(Sometimes, more euphoniously, "second-system syndrome") When
one is designing the successor to a relatively small, elegant,
and successful system, there is a tendency to become grandiose
in one's success and design an elephantine feature-laden
monstrosity. The term was first used by Fred Brooks in his
classic "The Mythical Man-Month. It described the jump from
a set of nice, simple operating systems on the IBM 70xx
series to OS/360 on the 360 series. A similar effect can
also happen in an evolving system; see Brooks's Law,
creeping elegance, creeping featurism. See also
Multics, OS/2, X, software bloat.
[Jargon File]