What do cooking and software engineering have in common?

Fernand Point, by some considered the “father of modern French cuisine”, writes in his book “Ma Gastronomie”:

Perfection is a lot of little things done well.

This is certainly true in regard to cooking. It is rare, albeit possible, that on little thing that’s missing or was not done right ruins the dish. More often it is a few subtle things, not enough or too little of a spice, the temperature of the oil in the frying pan slightly too low, that will make the dish less than perfect.

I find that the perfect software application also requires a lot of little things done right. That’s what makes software engineering more an art than a trade.