[burntoutfire]

The only difference is speed IMO. Sure, new requirements appear and they can wildly change the underlying assumptions of the systems - but usually, in such case we're given months or years to adapt/rewrite the system in a systematic manner. If, for every wild idea the researcher wants to explore, this amount of rigor was applied in its implementation, I'm guessing the research would slow down immensely. BTW most of research code written for chasing dead ends (quickly testing some small hypetheses), and will be discarded without sharing with anyone - so, investing into writing it properly seems especially wasteful.

[lmm]

Rapid fundamental changes and short-lived code to explore an idea that will most likely be thrown away are very much the everyday development experience in industry too, IME.