Filed under: Software craftsmanship, — Tags: Agile Central Europe 2011, Corey Haines — Thomas Sundberg — 2011-04-20
What is software craftsmanship about? It is about different things. One of them is technical excellence.
The Software Craftsmanship Manifesto is a reaction to the Agile Manifesto. The Agile Manifesto states that technical excellence is important. But it assumes that all developers strive for getting better. Not all developers do that, though. If you are a serious developer interested in your job, then you will always strive for technical excellence and work hard at getting better.
What is getting better? It is about raising the bar. But from which level should you raise the bar? That is undefined in the manifesto and the authors meant it to be undefined. It is hard, maybe even impossible, to define which level the bar is at.
This implies that all improvements of your technical skills matter. If you do anything better, then that is a good thing and you have probably raised the bar. This in turn implies that continuous improvement, which by definition is something good, is something to always aim for.
If you are serious about software development and always trying to raise your competence level, then the Software Craftsmanship Manifesto is for you. If you don't care about your profession, then it isn't and maybe you should consider another career.
Inspiration to this blog post came from Corey Haines at Agile Central Europe 2011
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