I just finished reading "The Software Craftsman" by Sandro Mancuso. Sandro is a sofware craftsman, author, and founder of the London Software Craftmanship Community (LSCC). He has worked on a number of different projects and companies ranging from small start-ups to large organizations.
Software craftmanship as a term is something that I came across for the first time in 2013 when I signed the Manifesto for Software Craftmanship. Around that time I also started reading books like "The pragmatic programmer" and "The clean coder" (both which I recommend by the way).
Actually Robert C. Martin - the author of "The clean coder" - has written the foreword for "The Software Craftsman", in which he states that he felt like he could have written the book himself. And that's 100% true. If you have read "The Clean Coder" you will recognize most of the ideas and topics discussed. At least for the first half of the book.
What Sandro emphasizes is that introducing agile methods at a company is good, but it is far from enough. Shortening feedback loops, empowering teams, and increasing transparency falls short if you don't change the way the developers look at their profession. Remember, agile puts individuals over processes and tools, right?
In order to really make a difference the developers needs to be passionate, proud, and professional. We should strive to always keep raising the bar.
Sandro goes on and describes attributes that he thinks are typical for a software craftsman, such as owning your career, keeping your skills up to date, know how and when to say no, taking responsibility for your actions and the code you produce and focusing on solving your customers' problems. He also describes techniques that the software craftmanship community has adopted such as test driven development (TDD) and pair programming.
A part of the book that I thought all managers and recruitement agents should read and consider is the description on how to attract great developers. The usual job ad that basically is a wish list of tools and techniques really isn't that compelling. Instead Sandro writes that a job ad should focus on attracting developers eager to learn and explore the areas in which your company operates. That the personality and passion for software development is far more important than the number of years you have been working with a specific language or framework.
I do not agree with everything Sandro writes. Sometimes I think he crosses the line of what you can expect from people. But mostly I recognize myself in what he writes and I even got some good laughs from this book.
I would recommend this book for any software developer that have been around for some time, espacially if your company has been through an "agile transformation" recently. You will find many things worth spending some thoughts on. People involved in recruitment of software developers should also read and think about the parts of the book related to that area.
Software craftmanship as a term is something that I came across for the first time in 2013 when I signed the Manifesto for Software Craftmanship. Around that time I also started reading books like "The pragmatic programmer" and "The clean coder" (both which I recommend by the way).
Actually Robert C. Martin - the author of "The clean coder" - has written the foreword for "The Software Craftsman", in which he states that he felt like he could have written the book himself. And that's 100% true. If you have read "The Clean Coder" you will recognize most of the ideas and topics discussed. At least for the first half of the book.
What Sandro emphasizes is that introducing agile methods at a company is good, but it is far from enough. Shortening feedback loops, empowering teams, and increasing transparency falls short if you don't change the way the developers look at their profession. Remember, agile puts individuals over processes and tools, right?
In order to really make a difference the developers needs to be passionate, proud, and professional. We should strive to always keep raising the bar.
Sandro goes on and describes attributes that he thinks are typical for a software craftsman, such as owning your career, keeping your skills up to date, know how and when to say no, taking responsibility for your actions and the code you produce and focusing on solving your customers' problems. He also describes techniques that the software craftmanship community has adopted such as test driven development (TDD) and pair programming.
A part of the book that I thought all managers and recruitement agents should read and consider is the description on how to attract great developers. The usual job ad that basically is a wish list of tools and techniques really isn't that compelling. Instead Sandro writes that a job ad should focus on attracting developers eager to learn and explore the areas in which your company operates. That the personality and passion for software development is far more important than the number of years you have been working with a specific language or framework.
I do not agree with everything Sandro writes. Sometimes I think he crosses the line of what you can expect from people. But mostly I recognize myself in what he writes and I even got some good laughs from this book.
I would recommend this book for any software developer that have been around for some time, espacially if your company has been through an "agile transformation" recently. You will find many things worth spending some thoughts on. People involved in recruitment of software developers should also read and think about the parts of the book related to that area.
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