Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour said: “All the problems that we’ve had, we put band-aid over band-aid to resolve the problems, and band-aid over band-aid doesn’t cover it. Maybe we need to consider some engineering fundamentals… to figure out what the problem is”.
In engineering, particularly in software engineering, there is a widely recognized principle: only use Band-aid solutions when they are absolutely necessary for urgent repairs due to critical deadlines or hotfixes. These temporary fixes should not remain in the codebase for long without proper refactoring, as they can significantly degrade the software’s maintainability. While such quick fixes conserve time and immediate resources, they compromise long-term maintainability, leading to higher costs and challenges when the code must be completely overhauled or rewritten. Additionally, an often overlooked aspect of software development is the cost of Technical Debt, which is directly tied to how maintainable the code is. Technical Debt can be likened to an aggressive cancer that persistently degrades previously functional and valuable code, eroding past business investments. As Technical Debt grows, it can severely diminish developer productivity, making code modifications or additions as challenging as trudging through mud, rather than moving effortlessly on a smooth road.
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