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    If the customer is king, it just goes to show how inefficient such customer kingships are! Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 1:44
  • 83
    "The customer is king. So as contractor you shall meet whatever the client has defined as quality standard. Or you risk to be out." The reverse has been my experience. Those who give their customers what they think they want and not what they actually need don't survive very long. In fact, I only reserve this form of abuse for real problem clients -- and a second dose has never been needed. Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 4:34
  • 6
    @DavidSchwartz yes, certainly. Sometimes customers think they need something but really need another. Up to the consultant or the developper to convince, and 2/3rd of my answer is exactly about this. But it all depends on the contractual context and the level of trust between the provider and the client. So the rule of customer is king has to be reminded (in fact I experienced several times with customers, that after a long debate about optimal solution, I raised this sentence and that triggered a sudden change of attitude and careful reconsideration of argumnts;-) ). Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 8:54
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    "Accuracy issue: if changes are done in the code, they must be done in the comments, or the comments might become useless." I'd say it's even worse than just useless. A comment that is out of date might turn into a bug (or someone reverting it because they think it's a bug) real quick when you expect that to be the source of truth and trust it. Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 14:35
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    @Hamatti Indeed. I once spent a considerable amount of time deciphering the original intent behind a line that read, i++; // count down Commented Mar 6, 2018 at 18:23