[raganwald]

I have met many, many clients who say they want it done quickly and cheaply. I haven’t met any so far who actually accept the notion that it should be crappy once it’s done.

Consider a pickup truck. A “cheap” new truck in Canada is an amazingly high-quality product. It doesn’t fall apart while driving down the street, it doesn’t require hand cranking to run. You can put a load of plywood and your tools in the back and they don’t fall out on the highway.

When a businessperson says they want it cheap and fast and are prepared to cut some corners to get it, they mean cheap like a pickup truck is cheap, they do not mean buggy or difficult to use. As such, what you or I might call “crappy” software rarely meets a businessperson’s needs.