Found this amusing link showing how “the world’s worst car,” the Trabant Sputnik of East Germany is/was made. This video in particular, reminds me of several enterprise software jobs I’ve had. Sure, most of the projects started out with detailed plans and documentation, but in the end management almost always abandons quality in favor of deadlines.

“Just keep kicking the grill until the hood lines up,” could easily have come out almost any of my boss’ mouths (if our project had a “grill” and “hood” that is 😉 ). “We’ll formalize the workaround into a documented procedure later.” In fact, I think a couple of them even had the same exquisite mullet as the worker in the video.

That’s one of the big reasons I’m out on my own now and why I refuse to call any software I write, “enterprise quality.” I’d much rather build Porches than Trabants.