Chapter 3 of the Software Craftsman book answers the question: what is a software craftsman? The book gives many definitions; the two that I like are:
- Software craftsmanship is a long journey to mastery. It’s a mindset where software developers choose to be responsible for their own careers, constantly learning new tools and techniques and constantly bettering themselves. It is about putting responsibility, professionalism, pragmatism, and pride back into software development.
- Software Craftsmanship is about professionalism in software development.
The rest of the chapter is about the history of software craftsmanship and the software craftsmanship manifesto. The manifesto is sort of like a guideline of what software craftsmen ought to do.
- Not only working software, but also well-crafted software.
- Not only responding to change, but also steadily adding value.
- Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals.
- Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnerships.
Chapter 4 is about the attitude a software craftsman must have. Our careers are in our hands not in our employer’s hands. It is our duty to improve ourselves. I totally agree with this statement. I personally have access to O’Reily Safari Books and it a really good resource. There are many good video courses and live training courses. I signed up for the Design Patterns Boot Camp course that starts this Wednesday and I also watched Uncle Bob’s SOLID principles videos on his website. When I enter the professional world I plan to attend more live training courses.
From the blog CS448 – The blog about software by Sudarshan and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.