Tom DeMarco

1940– · American software engineer, author, and consultant

Topics: engineering leadership, software engineering, learning

• You can't control what you can't measure

  — Tom DeMarco

• It's not what you don't know that kills you but what you know that isn't so.

  — Tom DeMarco

• The business of software building isn't really high-tech at all. It's most of all a business of talking to each other and writing things down. Those who were making major contributions to the field were more likely to be its best communicators than its best technicians.

  — Tom DeMarco

• While the machines have changed enormously, the business of software development has been rather static.

  — Tom DeMarco

• Quality is free, but only to those who are willing to pay heavily for it.

  — Tom DeMarco

• A day lost at the beginning of project hurts just as much as a day lost at the end.

  — Tom DeMarco

• The manager's function is not to make people work, but to make it possible for people to work.

  — Tom DeMarco

• People under pressure don’t work better; they just work faster.

  — Tom DeMarco