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I totally agree. Engineering should be the best it can be, within the constraints of the resources available. My post was addressing the common case where an e

I totally agree. Engineering should be the best it can be, within the constraints of the resources available. My post was addressing the common case where an engineer seems to ignore the 'resource constraints' side of the equation altogether. Balancing these factors is more art than science. No two projects have the same set of resource constraints, nor the same set of engineering challenges. Luck is a big factor. The solution depends heavily on the exact details of each particular case.

JamesSwift 5y ago
See also: engineers who think that engineering considerations trump all other business considerations. You need to know when it makes holistic sense to rewrite, or ship a hack. There are a lot more people at the decision-making table than just engineering.
- Silhouette 5y ago
  That is certainly true but somehow I suspect under-engineering is a more frequent problem in our industry than over-engineering. IME retrospectives rarely sound like "We hired a team of strong developers, they did a solid job, but then the business failed as a result". The kind of developers who are strong enough to do a solid job are probably also experienced enough to recognise the other considerations in play and adapt if necessary.