Software Engineering Proverbs

A clever person solves a problem.
A wise person avoids it.
-- Einstein

André Bensoussan once explained to me the difference between a programmer and a designer:

"If you make a general statement, a programmer says, 'Yes, but...'while a designer says, 'Yes, and...'"

No matter what the problem is,it's always a people problem.
--- Jerry Weinberg

Wexelblat's Scheduling Algorithm:
Choose two:
Good
Fast
Cheap

Craziness is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Tom DeMarco, rephrasing Einstein, who said
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

"There's no time to stop for gas, we're already late"
-- Karin Donker

Deming's 14 points
1. Create constancy of purpose.
2. Adopt the new philosophy.
3. Cease dependence on mass inspection to achieve quality.
4. Minimize total cost, not initial price of supplies.
5.I mprove constantly the system of production and service.
6. Institute training on the job.
7. Institute leadership.
8. Drive out fear.
9. Break down barriers between departments.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and numerical targets.
11. Eliminate work standards (quotas) and management by objective.
12. Remove barriers that rob workers, engineers, and managers of their right to pride of workmanship.
13. Institute a vigorous program of education and self-improvement.
14. Put everyone in the company to work to accomplish the transformation.

We know about as much about software quality problems as they knew about the Black Plague in the 1600s. We've seen the victims' agonies and helped burn the corpses. We don't know what causes it; we don't really know if there is only one disease. We just suffer -- and keep pouring our sewage into our water supply.
-- Tom Van Vleck