Of the four project development variables - scope, cost, time and quality - quality isn't really a free variable. The only possible values are "excellent" and "insanely excellent", depending on whether lives are at stake.

The system metaphor is a story that everyone--customers, programmers, and managers--can tell about how the system works.

Listening, Testing, Coding, Designing. That's all there is to software. Anyone who tells you different is selling something.

If you're having trouble succeeding, fail.

How good the design is doesn't matter near as much as whether the design is getting better or worse. If it is getting better, day by day, I can live with it forever. If it is getting worse, I will die.

I don't like the feeling, but I've got to say that a little fear makes me a more focused, more responsible programmer.

I mean, source code in files; how quaint, how seventies!