In the aftermath of GE’s price fixing scandal, we learned that GE executives had a culture of winking while they told subordinates not to break the law. Sometimes. Each salesperson had to interpret the word and the wink, and the occasional lack thereof, according to their own internal rules. Effective communication was, effectively, absent.

There is one scene that gets referenced several times in Rapid Development by Steve McConnell as an example of a hugely productive team.

If you’re responsible for a large, legacy code base, here’s my hint to you: delete your failing tests.