System debugging has always been a graveyard-shift occupation, like astronomy.

Even the best planning is not so omniscient as to get it right the first time.

Design work doesn't just satisfy requirements, it elicits them.

More software projects have gone awry for lack of calendar time than for all other causes combined.

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.

How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time.

Observe that for the programmer, as for the chef, the urgency of the patron may govern the scheduled completion of the task, but it cannot govern the actual completion. An omelette, promised in two minutes, may appear to be progressing nicely. But when it has not set in two minutes, the customer has two choices - wait or eat it raw. Software customers have had the same choices.