Artifact Blog - Deep Dives on Electrical System Design and Hardware Development

The Artifact Blog

Deep dive into electrical system design, hardware development, and engineering best practices.

Oct 13, 2025Industry Analysis

How the Pentagon's 1993 "Last Supper" Poisoned Engineering Software

In 1993, Defense Secretary Bill Perry gathered executives from 51 defense contractors for "The Last Supper." This meeting didn't just reshape the defense industrial base - it inadvertently poisoned the incentives for engineering software.

Antony Samuel

Co-Founder / CEO

Aug 9, 2025Engineering Strategy

The point of the schedule isn't to be right

At a product-level, the schedule is the primary tool to accelerate development by flagging landmines in the critical path. Once these are found, teams deploy resources, rescope the problem, or – very often – accept to slip the schedule.

Antony Samuel

Co-Founder / CEO

The Artifact Blog

How the Pentagon's 1993 "Last Supper" Poisoned Engineering Software

The point of the schedule isn't to be right

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