In software development, collateral damage is another source of defects; you might try to shove it out of the way (or define it away), but it still represents a pile of new defects, and you're unlikely to be able to avoid dealing with those defects for long without taking a reputation hit.

I've found the technical debt metaphor very useful for talking about this sort of thing. Especially with non-programmers.

In reply to Re^2: Programming is combat by adrianh
in thread Programming is combat by brian_d_foy

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