This week I choose to talk about the craft over art pattern. So, what is this pattern about? The book explains that craftsmanship is built upon strong relationships. This pattern is not about doing merely what is expedient. It also encompasses the idea that a useful craft artifact always displays at least a minimal level of quality. When using this pattern, you will have to balance your customer’s desire for the immediate resolution of their problem with the internal standards that make you a craftsman.
There are many things a developer should keep in mind when he/she develops a program but one thing that we should never forget is that you are primarily building something that serves the needs of others, not indulging in artistic expression. Developers think creatively, experimenting with different solutions to fit user needs and generally are comfortable with design systems. I have been many times in the place where I had to build something that I didn’t feel like it, but it is the customer that you need to satisfy.
Something that I really like from this pattern is when the book explains that You need to do your best work in ways that place the interests of your customers over your desire to display skill or pad your resume, while still adhering to the minimum standards of competence provided by the software development community. Walking the Long Road means you must balance these conflicting demands. If you starve because you are too much of an artist and your creations are too beautiful to be delivered in the real world, then you have left the craft. If your desire to do beautiful work forces you out of professional software development and away from building useful things for real people, then you have left the craft.
When you are making decisions about software, you should guide yourself by always keeping this in mind: How we can help? You can even prioritize feature requests this way. Remember: the purpose of the software is not to show off how intelligent you are. Your purpose is to help people — Max Kanat-Alexander, Code Simplicity
Reference:
Apprenticeship Patterns by Adewale Oshineye; Dave Hoover
From the blog CS@Worcester – Tech, Guaranteed by mshkurti and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.