If you take the article at face value--if its claims are true that $9-an-hour programmers cost Boeing billions of dollars--it is indeed a shame that, in this particular instance, Boeing was not willing to pay more for better programmers.
Are those claims true? Who knows. I'm sure that whoever hired those $9-an-hour programmers thought that if they could manage those programmers soooo well that they could get them to program as well as $100 an hour programmers.
YMMV, but in my experience, you can't manage programmers to be better programmers. No matter how much check-in approval bureaucracy, or how much QA, you will not get better programs. If you want better programs, you need to hire better programmers.
Are those claims true? Who knows. I'm sure that whoever hired those $9-an-hour programmers thought that if they could manage those programmers soooo well that they could get them to program as well as $100 an hour programmers.
YMMV, but in my experience, you can't manage programmers to be better programmers. No matter how much check-in approval bureaucracy, or how much QA, you will not get better programs. If you want better programs, you need to hire better programmers.