Anti-patterns and malpractices in modern software development (2015)
The best programmers I know write good code within the constraints of a fast paced business environment and they are also able to clearly articulate trade offs to stakeholders.  They don’t complain about business constraints and they put out stellar work.<p>“business people” most often do understand what makes the money flow through their company (and into engineers’ bank accounts) and they typically make decisions in order to maximize good business outcomes. Sure they don’t understand the technical details of an engineer’s work, but the engineers are far from understanding all of the things that must fall into place besides lines of code in order for their paycheck to clear. It’s not always vital to the business to have a good code base.  Also, for better or worse, if an engineer is not of the variety I listed above, they are replaceable in the eyes of the business.<p>(fwiw I’m a director-level engineer so I’m technical but bordering on being a “business person”)