Software Craftsmanship: Agile is Not Enough

Software Craftsmanship: Agile is Not Enough

Some people seem to think that following an Agile process will get you good software. But, the reality is that Software Craftsmanship is found in the work produced, not in the process followed. The Agile Manifesto hints at this, but many have missed it. How do you get that quality up there, consistently keep it there, and keep raising the bar? Through a combination of some discussion on the nature of Skills Acquisition, and an analysis of common practices in software development (from Tests to Pull Requests to Pair Programming), we’ll paint a picture of how to become a true expert that you can’t get from “Agile alone”.

Bio

Ken Auer is the founder and master craftsman of RoleModel Software (http://www.rolemodelsoft.com/). He is the author of Extreme Programming Applied (http://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Programming-Applied-Playing-Win/dp/0201616408) and a variety of early software patterns works. Ken learned Smalltalk and Objective-C in the mid-80s and was introduced as “the father of Software Craftsmanship” as the opening keynote speaker at the first Software Craftsmanship North America conference (http://scna.softwarecraftsmanship.org/). Though he occasionally speaks in various venues, he is most at home in his custom designed facility outside of Holly Springs, NC (designed and built using Christopher Alexander’s architectural design patterns (http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Language-Buildings-Construction-Environmental/dp/0195019199) ). There he focuses on working with his agile, high-performance, multi-disciplinary team to turn others’ innovative ideas into well-crafted software and raising up generations of software craftsmen through the Software Craftsmanship Academy (http://craftsmanshipacademy.com/) and RoleModel Software (http://www.rolemodelsoft.com/). You can occasionally find him on twitter (@kauerrolemodel (http://twitter.com/kauerrolemodel)), or read about his quest for an integrated life at http://kenauer.com (http://kenauer.com/).