Lately I have finished reading The Software Craftsman book by Sandro Mancuso. Reading the book is one of the goals of my apprenticeship program at HolidayCheck and it is an accurate onex. The book consists of history, experience and suggestions which would help to improve one’s carrier decisions completely.
Earlier chapters of the book, share some history about software development processes over the years and introduce the Agile Methodology. Afterwards the author introduces us to the software craftsmanship. He defines the problems about the current approaches and advocates software craftsmanship as A Better Metaphor. When we know enough about the metaphor and its history, author shares the manifesto. I would like to write down every one of the bullet points, since they aim to create a better software development community.
- Not only working software, but also well-crafted software
- Not only responding the change, but also steadily adding value
- Not only individuals and interactions, but also a community of professionals
- Not only customer collaboration, but also productive partnership
The following chapters are filled with previous experience of the author, which I especially liked and wrote a blog post about. He defines the problems and the solutions with his current mind-set. It is encouraging to see even the author made the same mistakes and most of the problems we are facing actually have solutions, or at least better approaches.
Second part of the book is about a full transformation from a regular software developer to a crafter. Chapters are filled with carrier experiences and real-life problems. The author does not just say things, he supports his ideas with his experience and it makes the book so fluent.
In my opinion, The Software Craftsman is a must read for every software developer.