Degrees of "works"

By Charles Miller on 23 May 2003

Any confusion of a higher level with a lower level is a capital offence.

Compiles on my machine
Compiles
Starts up on my machine
Starts up
Works on my machine
Works
Works acceptably

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Respect the Technology

20 May 2003

In order for this to happen, though, I expect the people who design toasted sandwich makers for a living to know a hell of a lot about them. This is fundamentally necessary. If it were made by some guy who'd read a pamphlet one evening about how to build an electrical appliance, it'd be just as likely to blow up in my face as do anything useful.

Quality In Depth

24 May 2003

Above all, you need a culture where quality is considered important. (This, once again, parallels security.) If the company doesn't value quality, you're never going to achieve it because everyone will be looking for ways to work around whatever measures you put in place, and nobody will ever be called to account for doing so.