a system that makes it to production does not mean it's a success

Remember, the fact that a system that makes it to production does not mean it's a success. We need to build our systems so that our successors -- developers with less business knowledge and a weaker grasp of the system’s design -- can build on and maintain them. We need to educate and train the less-than-good and raise the bar for acceptability. No, it's not the easy way, but it is the simple, painful truth.