Process improvement is most valuable in raising the floor of a community's practice.

Systematically identity top designers as early as possible. The best are often not the most experienced.

There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order-of-magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity.

It is very difficult to make a vigorous, plausible, and job-risking defense of an estimate that is derived by no quantitative method, supported by little data, and certified chiefly by the hunches of the managers

The management question, therefore, is not whether to build a pilot system and throw it away. You will do that. Hence plan to throw one away; you will, anyhow.

Mediocre design provably wastes the world's resources, corrupts the environment, affects international competitiveness. Design is important.

Process improvement is most valuable in raising the floor of a community's practice.