Creating a Software Engineering Culture

Chapter 2. Standing On Principle

The only freedom that has any meaning is the freedom to proceed differently from the way your manager would have proceeded. This is true in a broader sense, too: The right to be right (in your manager’s eyes or in your government’s eyes) is irrelevant; it’s only the right to be wrong that makes you free.

—Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister, Peopleware

You may be asked to cut corners on the quality of the work you do or the way you do it. Sometimes, the person making the request is a manager who doesn’t appreciate the value of the quality activities you practice, or someone who feels budget and schedule pressures you may not. Sometimes, it is a customer who wants you to address only her specific needs, even though ...