Steve McConnell

“the road to programming hell is paved with global variables,”

— Steve McConnell

“code reading detected about 80 percent more faults per hour than testing”

— Steve McConnell

95% on content and the computer language remains the same.

— Steve McConnell

“You can do anything with stacks and iteration that you can do with recursion.”

— Steve McConnell

Good visual layout shows the logical structure of a program.

— Steve McConnell

A blanket attempt to avoid mistakes is the biggest mistake of all.

— Steve McConnell

“it's done by creating 25 times as many dirty tests”

— Steve McConnell

“Favor read-time convenience to write-time convenience. Code”

— Steve McConnell

Heuristic is an algorithm in a clown suit. It’s less predictable, it’s more fun, and it comes without a 30-day, money-back guarantee.

— Steve McConnell

“developers insert an average of 1 to 3 defects per hour into their designs and 5 to 8 defects per hour into code”

— Steve McConnell

“defect corrections have more than a 50 percent chance of being wrong the first time”

— Steve McConnell

“the error rate in manual testing is comparable to the bug rate in the code being tested.”

— Steve McConnell

A typical software project can present more opportunities to learn from mistakes than some people get in a lifetime.

— Steve McConnell

The trouble with quick and dirty is that dirty remains long after quick has been forgotten.

— Steve McConnell

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

— Steve McConnell

“once gotos are introduced, they spread through the code like termites through a rotting house.”

— Steve McConnell

Software projects fail for one of two general reasons: the project team lacks the knowledge to conduct a software project successfully, or…

— Steve McConnell

Motivation is undoubtedly the single greatest influence on how well people perform. Most productivity studies have found that motivation has a stronger…

— Steve McConnell

... programming requires more concentration than other activities. It's the reason programmers get upset about 'quick interruptions' - such interruptions are tantamount…

— Steve McConnell

The default movement on a software project should be in the direction of taking elements of the software away to make it…

— Steve McConnell

The primary purpose of software estimation is not to predict a project's outcome; it is to determine whether a project's targets are…

— Steve McConnell

The job of the average manager requires a shift in focus every few minutes. The job of the average software developer requires…

— Steve McConnell

Good code is its own best documentation. As you're about to add a comment, ask yourself, "How can I improve the code…

— Steve McConnell

“[...] you shouldn't be uneasy about any parts of the architecture. It shouldn't contain anything just to please the boss. It shouldn't…

— Steve McConnell

“Programmers working with high-level languages achieve better productivity and quality than those working with lower-level languages. Languages such as C++, Java, Smalltalk,…

— Steve McConnell

In software, consultants sometimes tell you to buy into certain software-development methods to the exclusion of other methods. That’s unfortunate because if…

— Steve McConnell

Testing by itself does not improve software quality. Test results are an indicator of quality, but in and of themselves, they don't…

— Steve McConnell

Building software implies various stages of planning, preparation and execution that vary in kind and degree depending on what's being built. [...]…

— Steve McConnell

Good code is its own best documentation.

— Steve McConnell

“few people can understand more than three levels of nested ifs”

— Steve McConnell

“in the vast majority of systems, efficiency isn't critical.”

— Steve McConnell

“developers' estimates tend to have an optimism factor of 20 to 30 percent”

— Steve McConnell

11 years is a long time in this industry.

— Steve McConnell

“Hurrying to solve a problem is one of the most time-ineffective things you can do.”

— Steve McConnell

“There is no code so big, twisted, or complex that maintenance can't make it worse.”

— Steve McConnell

“Mature testing organizations tend to have five dirty tests for every clean test.”

— Steve McConnell

“Be sure that the names you choose favor read-time convenience over write-time convenience.”

— Steve McConnell

There are no secrets on an successful software project. Both good and bad news must be able to move up and down…

— Steve McConnell

“Spend your time on the 20 percent of the refactorings that provide 80 percent of the benefit.”

— Steve McConnell

“Eighty percent of the errors are found in 20 percent of a project's classes or routines”

— Steve McConnell