Chapter 18
Understand the Business
"The fact is that the system that people work in and the interaction with people may account for 90 or 95 percent of performance."
– William Edwards Deming
In general, one of the most common patterns observed in software developers is that they tend to see software development as a discipline apart—almost disconnected from any other fields of science or business. This view makes them think very passionately, deeply and seriously about it, but the same depth and passion fade out very quickly for other topics that are equally or even more important for the success of the business and the software development itself.
This quote of William Edwards (Bill) Deming reveals a great truth: software development is a team activity. Success and failure is team success or failure. According to him, if the working dynamics of teams aren't good, the relevance of the technical abilities of single developers account...