Paul Jones has a new post today looking at the disconnect in the term "quality" that there seems to be between the ones developing the code and the ones paying for the end result.

Recently, I was pondering why it is that programmers and employers have different attitudes toward the quality of the projects they collaborate on. The people who do the work are usually the ones who care more about quality. Why? [...] The people who are paying for the work care much less about quality. Why?

He touches on some of the answers to the "why" questions above and points out that it's not so much about the care one has over the other on quality. It's the differing definitions of quality they both have on the parts they work with.