I've been in pdenya's situation before. It is very much a hack, and it lacks any Engineering period. I was at a shop that didn't pay their employees well and e

I've been in pdenya's situation before. It is very much a hack, and it lacks any Engineering period. I was at a shop that didn't pay their employees well and enticed them with big projects for big clients - really neat work in many cases. A lot of people working there were young and ambitious (ie new grads,) but they didn't stand up for themselves. The result is that inexperienced developers run projects that go over time and over budget, which results in lots of overtime (unpaid, because you're on salary) which leads to extremely high employee turnover. It's huge short term thinking, and I suggested as much when I left. But I'm sure management has that figured out and they've found a model that produces decent work and keeps the clients happy, so why change? Buggy code = more time charging out maintenance projects.