Extreme Programming Explained by Kent Beck is one of the most influential software development books I’ve ever read. I was looking at some notes I usually take when reading books and found this lovely quote:

The difference is between playing to win and playing not to lose. Most software development I see is played not to lose. Lots of paper gets written. Lots of meetings are held. Everyone is trying to develop “by the book,” not because it makes any particular sense, but because they want to be able to say at the end that it wasn’t their fault, they were following the process. CYA.

Software development played to win does everything that helps the team to win and doesn’t do anything that doesn’t help to win.

See also: Extreme Programming Wisdow.