As we saw in the last essay, the 80:20 rule seemingly appears in many circumstances. When I was attending college and working as a programmer during the 80’s, there were some commonly accepted tenets that guided our software development processes and behaviors.

Did you ever read one of those articles where the writer had instant credibility? I recently stumbled upon one when I was looking to get my web site indexed on dmoz.org. The article is titled “Nine Steps to Delivering Defect-Free Software” by Terence M. Colligan. When I read the article I knew he isn’t just writing about somebody else’s experience because it mirrored my own experiences when I was writing software myself. In the article he identifies nine traits contributing to defect free code.