Quotessence
Home / Topics / Software Engineering Quotes

Software Engineering Quotes

Browse 145 quotes about Software Engineering.

Related topics

ProgrammingProgramming LanguagesComputer ProgrammingProgrammersComputerBugsCodeComputer SoftwareTestingComputer ProgrammersProgramLanguageProgramming FunnyComputer LanguagePeopleDesignFunny InspirationalQualitySoftware DesignFunny ComputerProblemTechnologyDevelopersIfsProjectsShouldStaffingTeamworkThinking

Software Engineering Quotes

“People are inherently imperfect - we like to say that humans are mostly a collection of intermittent bugs. But before you can understand the bugs in your coworkers, you need to understand the bugs in yourself. We’re going to ask you to think about your own reactions, behaviors, and attitudes - and in return, we hope you gain some real insight into how to become a more efficient and successful software engineer who spends less energy dealing with people-related problems and more time writing great code.”

PeopleBugsSoftware Engineering
Book:Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
Create image

“The moral is this: do not underestimate the power of playing the social game. It’s not about tricking or manipulating people; it’s about creating relationships to get things done. Relationships always outlast projects. When you’ve got richer relationships with your coworkers, they’ll be more willing to go the extra mile when you need them.”

RelationshipSoftware Engineering
Book:Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
Create image

“A boat without a captain is nothing more than a floating waiting room: unless someone grabs the rudder and starts the engine, it’s just going to drift along aimlessly with the current. A piece of software is just like that boat: if no one pilots it, you’re left with a group of engineers burning up valuable time, just sitting around waiting for something to happen (or worse, still writing code that you don’t need).”

Project ManagementSoftware Engineering
Book:Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
Create image

“Businesses frequently prioritize new feature releases over fixing technical debt. They choose to work on revenue-generating work instead of revenue-protection work. This rarely works out as the business hopes, particularly as problems discovered during the final stages of uncompleted projects drag engineers away from the newer projects.”

BusinessPlanningProject ManagementSoftware Engineering
Book:Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow
Create image

“Working extra hours can hurt team dynamics. Not everyone on the team will have the flexibility to pitch in the extra hours. Perhaps one team member has children at home whom he has to take care of. Maybe someone else has a 2-week trip planned in the upcoming months, or she has to commute a long distance and can't work as many hours. Whereas once the team jelled together and everyone worked fairly and equally, now those who work more hours have to carry the weight of those who can't or don't. The result can be bitterness or resentment between members of a formerly-happy team.”

Software EngineeringOvertime
Book:The Effective Engineer: How to Leverage Your Efforts In Software Engineering to Make a Disproportionate and Meaningful Impact
Create image

“Tests are sometimes mistaken with quality assurance. These two notions are not identical: 1) quality assurance ensures that the organization's processes are implemented and applied correctly; 2) testing identifies defects and failures, and provides information on the software and the risks associated with their release to the market”

TestingSoftware EngineeringSoftware DevelopmentQuality AssuranceSoftware TestingSoftware Quality Assurance
Book:Fundamentals of Software Testing
Create image

“In short, performance ratings are indicative only of how a person is performing in their given role at the time they are being evaluated. Ratings, although an important way to measure performance during a specific period, are not predictive of future performance and should not be used to gauge readiness for a future role or qualify an internal candidate for a different team. (They can, however, be used to evaluate whether an employee is properly or improperly slotted on their current team; therefore, they can provide an opportunity to evaluate how to better support an internal candidate moving forward.)”

Software EngineeringPerformance Management
Book:Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
Create image

“Connascence, in the context of software engineering, refers to the degree of coupling between software components. (Connascence.io hosts a handy reference to the various types of connascence.) Software components are connascent if a change in one would require the other(s) to be modified in order to maintain the overall correctness of the system.”

Software EngineeringData ManagementData Architecture
Book:Data Management at Scale: Best Practices for Enterprise Architecture
Create image

“Evolving a widely reused resource also requires coordination because changes must be compatible with all existing systems or users. Such coordination can slow down innovation... Some digital companies have even begun to explicitly favor duplication because their business environment rewards economies of speed.”

Software EngineeringSoftware Architecture
Book:The Software Architect Elevator: Redefining the Architect's Role in the Digital Enterprise
Create image

“Even if the ecosystem doesn’t change, what about the gradual erosion of architectural characteristics that occurs? Architects design architectures, but then expose them to the messy real world of implementing things atop the architecture. How can architects protect the important parts they have defined?”

Software EngineeringSoftware Architecture
Book:Building Evolutionary Architectures: Support Constant Change
Create image

“The required techniques of effective reasoning are pretty formal, but as long as programming is done by people that don't master them, the software crisis will remain with us and will be considered an incurable disease. And you know what incurable diseases do: they invite the quacks and charlatans in, who in this case take the form of Software Engineering gurus.”

PeopleKnowsLongDoneFormCasesMastersDiseaseCrisisTechniqueReasoningProgrammingSoftwareInvitesEngineeringFormalGuruSoftware EngineeringCharlatansQuacksIncurable Disease
Author:Edsger Dijkstra
Create image

“The first step toward the management of disease was replacement of demon theories and humours theories by the germ theory. That very step, the beginning of hope, in itself dashed all hopes of magical solutions. It told workers that progress would be made stepwise, at great effort, and that a persistent, unremitting care would have to be paid to a discipline of cleanliness. So it is with software engineering today.”

FirstsMadeWould BeCareTodayEffortStepsProgressHumourTheoryDisciplineDiseaseSolutionsPaidManagementWorkersDemonSoftwareEngineeringFirst StepsPersistentCleanlinessGermsReplacementsSoftware EngineeringGreat Effort
Author:Fred Brooks
Create image

“There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.”

WayFirstsTwoDifficultSimpleDesignHumorousProgramMethodObviousWittyComplicatedOne WayCodeComplexityProgrammingSoftwareEngineeringTwo WaysProgrammersComputer ProgrammingComputer ScienceDeficiencyProgramming LanguagesComputer LanguageDevelopersSoftware EngineeringSoftware DesignComputer ProgrammersSoftware DevelopmentComputer SoftwareSimplicity In DesignFunny ComputerProgramming FunnySimplicity And EleganceSimple And ComplexProgress And Development
Author:Tony Hoare
Create image