A code review is really about other programmers giving their personal opinions on how they would have written the code, backed up by nothing more than their own experiences.

— Adam Barr, The Problem with Software

Younger managers learn quickly that, whatever the public protestations to the contrary, bosses generally want pliable and agreeable subordinates, especially during periods of crisis. Clique leaders want dependable, loyal allies. Thos who regularly raise objections to what a boss or a clique leader really desires run the risk of being considered problems themselves and of being labeled “outspoken,” or “nonconstructive,” or “doomsayers,” “naysayers,” or “crepehangers”.

— Robert Jackall, Moral Mazes

“Testing gathers information about a product; it does not fix things it finds that are wrong. Testing does not improve a product; the improving is done by people fixing the bugs that testing has uncovered. Often when managers say, “Testing takes too long,” what they should be saying is, “Fixing the bugs in the product takes too long”—a different cost category.”

— Gerald Weinberg, Perfect Software and Other Illusions About Testing

No one with expertise in the real world follows the rules to the letter; doing so is demonstrably inefficient.

— Andy Hunt, Pragmatic Thinking and Learning

There may be many and varied causes of emotional reaction in one’s personal life, but in the workplace, the major arouser of emotions is threatened self-esteem.

— Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister, Peopleware