[camdez]

I don’t find this to be an accurate description.

Yes, quality (often) has this one bad apple spoils the whole bunch property. If we have to have a math metaphor we might say that quality is multiplicative, in the sense that one low value in a sequence still impacts the entire product. Or we might say that quality has an absorbing element, by which we mean that any zero value kills the whole set (100 * 100 * 100 * 0 still equals 0). But fractal means that we see self-similarity at all levels. That hardly seems to be the case.

According to the original argument, bad software implies bad programmers which implies a bad company. That seems not only incorrect but also non-constructive. It ignores (e.g.) the idea that good employees could release bad products under bad management. Likewise, great programmers can write applications which are terrible to use. There are other skills involved in that process (interaction design, for instance). The criteria for evaluating programmers and software are vastly different and thus it doesn’t make sense to say that there’s a fractal relationship between these two vastly different kinds of entities.