"The essence of a software entity is a construct of interlocking concepts: [... ] I believe the hard part of building software to be the specification, design, and testing of this conceptual construct, not the labor of representing it and testing the fidelity of the representation." (Fred Brooks, "No Silver Bullet", 1986)
"The obsession with methodologies in the workplace is another instance of the high-tech illusion. It stems from the belief that what really matters is the technology. [...] Whatever the technological advantage may be, it may come only at the price of a significant worsening of the team's sociology." (Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister, "Peopleware", 1987)
"Good engineering is not a matter of creativity or centering or grounding or inspiration or lateral thinking, as useful as those might be, but of decoding the clever, even witty, messages the solution space carves on the corpses of the ideas in which you believed with all your heart, and then building the road to the next message." (Fred Hapgood, "Up the infinite Corridor: MIT and the Technical Imagination", 1993)
"There is a tendency to believe that good architecture leads to systems that perform better and are more secure, but such claims relate less to any given architectural principle than to the timing of big-picture deliberations in the design cycle and to the proper engagement of suitable stakeholders." (James O Coplien & Trygve Reenskaug, "The DCI Paradigm: Taking Object Orientation into the Architecture World", 2014)
"A lot of research in software engineering strikes me as hopelessly naive in one of two ways. Most of it fails entirely to account for the social and belief aspects altogether. It looks at its object of inquiry as if it was entirely material and inert; as if 'software' was some kind of naturally occurring substance, the properties of which can be revealed in the equivalent of a test tube." (Laurent Bossavit, "The Leprechauns of Software Engineering", 2015)
"It's wishful thinking to believe that all the code we write will be bug-free and work the first time. In actuality, much of our engineering time is spent either debugging issues or validating that what we're building behaves as expected. The sooner we internalize this reality, the sooner we will start to consciously invest in our iteration speed in debugging and validation loops." (Edmond Lau, "The Effective Engineer: How to Leverage Your Efforts In Software Engineering to Make a Disproportionate and Meaningful Impact", 2015)
"Beliefs must be reflected in actions to become a part of your leadership style. Your actions develop and strengthen the abilities that support your leadership style. Practicing your beliefs cements them into skills and resources." (Morgan Evans, "Engineering Manager's Handbook", 2023)
"Great engineering managers find ways to give work meaning and make that meaning broadly understood. They align the realities of the engineering work they are tasked with to the aspirations and beliefs of their team members. [...] For your engineers, translating the why in a way they can understand and accept is a powerful tool for alignment and guiding decisions in the direction you want. [...] Translating outside of your team and upward to leadership (managing up) is oftentimes the most impactful translation of all." (Morgan Evans, "Engineering Manager's Handbook", 2023)
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