  Since the early days of computers and programs, the process and outcomes of
software development has been a minefield plagued with problems and failures,
as much as the complexity and complication of software and its development has
increased by a thousandfold in half a century. Over the years, a number of
theories, laws, best practices, manifestos and methodologies have emerged, with
varied degrees of (un)success. Our experience as software engineers of complex
and large-scale systems shows that those guidelines are bound to previously
defined and often narrow scopes. Enough is enough. Nowadays, nearly every
company is in the software and services business and everything is - or is
managed by - software. It is about time, then, that the laws that govern our
universe ought to be redefined. In this context, we discuss and present a set
of universal laws that leads us to propose the first commandment of software
engineering for all varieties of information systems.
