The default movement on a software project should be in the direction of taking elements of the software away to make it simpler rather than adding elements to make it more complex.

Good code is its own best documentation.

Even when you have skilled, motivated, hard-working people, the wrong team structure can undercut their efforts instead of catapulting them to success. A poor team structure can increase development time, reduce quality, damage morale, increase turnover, and ultimately lead to project cancellation.

In my experience, you either have encapsulation and abstraction or you have neither. There is no middle ground.

Trying to apply formal methods to all software projects is just as bad as trying to apply code-and-fix development to all projects.

Engineering is the application of scientific principles toward practical ends. If the engineering isn't practical, it's bad engineering.

It's OK to figure out murder mysteries, but you shouldn't need to figure out code. You should be able to read it.