I’m currently reading the classic book “Peopleware”. I’ve never really read books on management before, so it’s interesting to read about stuff that I’ve previously only noticed by doing on the job.

One of the chapters is on quality and how you should never compromise on quality. The idea is that most programmers are proud of their work and if you pressure them to lower their quality you will lower their morale. Lowered morale means that people quite and replacing people is very expensive.

As a convincing example, they mention that Japan is by many considered to be famous for their high quality on anything they produce. At the same time, they are also famous for being productive. So there isn’t necessarily a tradeoff between quality and productivity.

Interestingly this is something I’ve noticed first hand. Both how productivity has increased by having a zero tolerance on bugs because it eliminates most support tickets. But also how morale can plummet when programmers are being told to lower their quality standard.