One of my favourite books is the Pragmatic Programmer by Andrew Hunt and David Thomas. In it they espouse a “broken windows” theory to describe the rapid decline of software once it appears that nobody cares for reasonable standards.
This is a fantastic theory that has, in my experience, been proven correct time and time again. Go buy their book right now and get a copy for every nerd you know.
P.S. I was reminded about this theory after talking to a friend and former co-worker. It seems the theory applies to equally well to companies and management practices.
UPDATE (5 minutes after original post): Clarke Ching, in his magnificence, already had a post on this exact subject. He includes a link to the original article about broken windows. I didn’t copy. Honest. But I would have done a better job if I had!
You’re really on form these days!
Malcolm Gladwell writes about the original “Broken Windows” theory in his excellent book “tipping point”. It was used in the NYC “Zero tolerance” crime clean up. Gladwells book really is excellent … you should buy it or read every article on his website http://www.gladwell.com.
I’ve got a link to the original tipping point article here: http://www.clarkeching.com/2004/04/broken_windows.html