No one sets out to create crufty code, but too often the pressure to "push it out the door and we'll fix it later" gets the best of us all. Before you know it, it's three projects later, the sun is still shining and you're still getting a paycheck. So where is the incentive to go back and clean under the rug?
Poor core quality isn't just a developer problem, either. It bleeds into team moral, deters decision agility, and ultimately prevents team members from getting into flow.
Quality code isn't something that requires a complete rewrite either (which is likely impossible), but can be accomplished with style guides, code reviews and a devotion to team investment time.
The pressure to ship will always be there, but starting (or maintaining) projects with an agreed upon foundation alleviates developers and designers from making potentially hundreds of decisions each day. This leaves room for the decisions that actually matter.
Learn how to transform your team, regardless of your position, into a lean, mean standards machine. Develop a multi-tier style guide, workflow and practices that focus on knowledge and consensus building. Eliminate the mundane decisions and allow the team to focus on its craft.