Systematically identity top designers as early as possible. The best are often not the most experienced.
Even the best planning is not so omniscient as to get it right the first time.
System debugging, like astronomy, has always been done chiefly at night.
Process improvement is most valuable in raising the floor of a community's practice.
A computer program is a message from a man to a machine. The rigidly marshaled syntax and the scrupulous definitions all exist to make intention clear to the dumb engine.
You can learn more from failure than success. In failure you're forced to find out what part did not work. But in success you can believe everything you did was great, when in fact some parts may not have worked at all. Failure forces you to face reality.