Zero-defects code: the prescient Microsoft memo from 1989

“We are not suggesting this is attainable on the first try, but we think we know how to get there.” There are no new ideas in software engineering, only ones we’ve learned and then forgotten. In 1989, the Zero Defects memo at Microsoft was already arguing for the ideas that became Continuous Integration, Test-Driven Development, and “shift left”. In 1989, Microsoft had shipped MS-DOS but hadn’t…