Brian On Software

I just finished watching a special interview with Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin, Michael Feathers and Pete McBreen (author of one of my favorite books “Software Craftsmanship”) that was recorded at last year’s JAOO (check out more JAOO videos here).  The subject is one my dearest and often misunderstood in the industry: being professional at work by writing clean code.  I’ve studied software engineering as an undergraduate and one thing that was clearly missing in the curriculum was a class or two about how to write good, solid, simple, clean code that works.  Instead we were taught a lot about software processes and how the processes determines whether or not your project will succeed.  That’s sad because deep inside I know that the process is the to support your project, not drive it.  What drives the project at the end of the line is the code.  Your software is ALL about code, not processes.

A couple of things that made me jump while listening to this interview were when Michael Feathers says that in one company, in which he consulted, none of the developers have heard of the “Design Patterns” book by the GoF.  Even a story that Pete McBreen told us about a developer who didn’t checked in his code after working on it more than four weeks.  This is a very important interview that the JAOO folks have made public and even more important for managers and developers to watch it together.  A special thanks for this discovery goes to Dave Hoover who started a thread on “apprenticeship” over at the Software Craftsmanship Google group.