Building the thing right versus building the right thing

The practices that we use are often known as "the intangibles" of software delivery because from an outsider's point of view, they aren't visible as part of the features we deliver but they have the potential to help us build a much better product.

"Building the thing right" means a focus on crafting our software.

"Building the right thing" means focusing on getting good outcomes for the customer.

Unfortunately, sometimes the bias can be towards the latter, the pressure to deliver often being greater than the desire for quality.

Poor quality manifests itself in a few ways: poor performance (slow), doesn't work as expected, takes forever for the team to make requested enhancements, ...

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