Software Craftsman, The: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride (Robert C. Martin Series)
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Be a Better Developer and Deliver Better Code
Despite advanced tools and methodologies, software projects continue to fail. Why? Too many organizations still view software development as just another production line. Too many developers feel that way, too―and they behave accordingly.
In The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride, Sandro Mancuso offers a better and more fulfilling path. If you want to develop software with pride and professionalism; love what you do and do it with excellence; and build a career with autonomy, mastery, and purpose, it starts with the recognition that you are a craftsman. Once you embrace this powerful mindset, you can achieve unprecedented levels of technical excellence and customer satisfaction.
Mancuso helped found the world’s largest organization of software craftsmen; now, he shares what he’s learned through inspiring examples and pragmatic advice you can use in your company, your projects, and your career.
You will learn
Why agile processes aren’t enough and why craftsmanship is crucial to making them work How craftsmanship helps you build software right and helps clients in ways that go beyond code How and when to say “No” and how to provide creative alternatives when you do Why bad code happens to good developers and how to stop creating and justifying it How to make working with legacy code less painful and more productive How to be pragmatic―not dogmatic―about your practices and tools How to lead software craftsmen and attract them to your organization What to avoid when advertising positions, interviewing candidates, and hiring developers How developers and their managers can create a true culture of learning How to drive true technical change and overcome deep patterns of skepticism
Sandro Mancuso has coded for startups, software houses, product companies, international consultancies, and investment banks. In October 2013, he cofounded Codurance, a consultancy based on Software Craftsmanship principles and values. His involvement with Software Craftsmanship began in 2010, when he founded the London Software Craftsmanship Community (LSCC), now the world’s largest and most active Software Craftsmanship community, with more than two thousand craftsmen. For the past four years, he has inspired and helped developers to organize Software Craftsmanship communities throughout Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world.
From the brand
For those who want to increase their skills and proficiency to the level of a Master Craftsman.
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Publisher : Pearson
Publication date : December 24, 2014
Edition : 1st
Language : English
Print length : 288 pages
ISBN-10 : 0134052501
ISBN-13 : 978-0134052502
Item Weight : 1 pounds
Dimensions : 7 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
Part of series : Robert C. Martin Series
Best Sellers Rank: #831,356 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #251 in Software Design & Engineering #744 in Microsoft Programming (Books) #910 in Software Development (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 441 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers say
Customers find the book readable and appreciate its advice for young professionals. Moreover, the book provides a good overview of software craftsmanship and serves as an introduction to the concepts. Additionally, customers like the book’s tone, with one describing it as inspiring.
12 reviews for Software Craftsman, The: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride (Robert C. Martin Series)
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Original price was: €40.€35Current price is: €35.
vrto –
There is a difference between “having a job” and “being a craftsman” – it’s called commitment to excellence
Iâve been sympathizing with the notion of âsoftware craftsmanshipâ for quite a while. I truly believe it is vitally important to spread the notion of professional software development, and therefore I was absolutely thrilled when I got this book. Sandroâs writing is an amazing summary of thoughts on craftsmanship and advice for true professionals: how staying loyal to your craft makes you gradually better at it; how shifting to management is not a career progression, but a career change. This book will tell you that âbeing a professional developerâ is not about wearing a fancy suit or using expensive enterprise-grade solutions; it is about constantly striving to deliver excellent solutions that solve customersâ problems.This author is a passionate developer who walked a long journey to mastery and is sharing with us all the real life stories, gotchas and mistakes that he (or people he worked with) made along the way.Sandro spends a solid portion of the book discussing Agile and in particular the Agile transformations that many companies recently went through. He makes some great points on how many people tend to focus on the process, while Agile is way more than that. There are very important technical parts of Agile (TDD, XP, etc.) that various process-oriented agile coaches take for granted.A software craftsman quite often has to enter unknown waters and start with transformation from the very bottom. The book gives you some great advice on how to convince people to adopt certain practices (like TDD), how to make management understand the ROI of high-quality code, and how to surround yourself with great people (and, last but not least, how to hire great craftsmen).In general, this book is quite easy reading. You can happily read a chapter or two even after a day of hard work. If you love what you do and if youâre truly committed to excellence, you can’t go wrong with this one.
all4one –
A Candid, Personal View of Software Development
In this book, the author describes his personal journey from an aspiring developer to an experienced professional. Sandro is a pundit for software craftsmanship, a phrase which delights some developers and irritates others. Regardless of how you view software development, the author provides personal and compelling descriptions of the profession’s good, bad and ugly dimensions. With my 35+ years of experience as a developer, I could relate to nearly all of Sandro’s experiences. The central question is what the attributes and habits of a truly professional developer are. The raw truth is that most software projects are grossly mismanaged and often employ unmotivated, semi-skilled developers. Is it any wonder that the majority of software projects are poorly designed, poorly implemented and painful to work on? Is it therefore surprising that a large percentage of those projects are abject failures? If you’re an experienced developer but can’t relate to Sandro’s stories, then “professional” is a word that you will probably never understand.
bekkra –
Unusual, and not quite politically correct
Tells you some stuff that may sound controversial: that there is more to a software developer than function and that beyond methods ans consensus there is still a qualitative aspect of the field.For the generation that is taught that everybody is equal, when you measure them by select criteria, the central subject may appear shocking. Yet, our culture has always acted out these ideas no matter the currently popular ideologies.For software professionals, this may be a valuable guide into their future: should they continue in the field or not.Should be read by managers and HR people too :)I think the content wiuld have been better as an essay. Too much is repeated so my impression is that the book is a bit inflated.
Neo –
One of the best books I have read in a long time
This is a great book for people who have been working in the software industry for some time. If you have been in the industry and want to learn all the wrong things you may have been doing this is the best resource. The book also provides a more holistic view on how to run a successful software development organization and thus it does not only focus on certain programming language or concept. It rather walks through topics like how to hire passionate developers,how to educate employees in your organization, how to keep high morale… and many other things you didn’t know you should think about as a manager and a software developer.
smc –
One of the best software books out there!
Amazing book. If you are starting to get angry about start up stupid, bad bosses, poorly run projects, and having problems doing quality work in a sea of meh – this is your book.Pairs well with Code Complete by Steve McConnel (sp?)
Cuva Alexandre –
Thank you
Great book, Sandro share is experience in his book. This is an inspiring book, I would recommend to who seek to be a professional developers. I would even recommend to read to everyone out there thinking their are senior, master developers !!!
syrion –
Good for the person, questionable for the team
This is a pretty good book for professional behavior recommendations; process and team recommendations, not so much.The content in chapters four through eight is the most interesting, covering practical aspects of the “software craftsmanship” discipline. Some of the recommendations are relatively dogmatic, though; pair programming hasn’t held up particularly well in research, for example, and some of the flogging of agile methodologies were based on “No true Scotsman” arguments so typical in this space. The interview tips are, by and large, good, although the attacks on “9 to 5” developers are annoying; some of the best developers I know could be described as “9 to 5” developers, and some of the worst spend all their time working.I recommend the book, with the caveat that you should take the XP-based and team-oriented commentary with a grain of salt.
Kindle Customer –
The author promotes the idea that real developers should see themselves as crafters, because coding is a refined blend of science, skill, experience and art: a lifelong craft. Much like the masters crafters of old times, who spend their lives improving themselves and their work, the developers should always strive for continuous improvement.To achieve this, Mancuso says they should embrace three things: passion for learning, pride for their work and professionalism in their behaviour.The crafters always love practicing their specialty. They enjoy honing their skills, learning new skills, finding new ways to complete their objectives, talking and sharing their knowledge, among others. This does not apply only to code, but also to everything that relates to their chosen field: practices, process, soft skills, business knowledge, etc.Also, the crafters must have pride for their work. They donât produce hurried or shoddy work, as they always strive to present their best when they are crafting; they see their work as a demonstration of themselves.Finally, they must be professionals in their dealings with their clients. To the crafters, everybody for whom they work are clients, regardless if they are working as contractors, freelancers or employees to a company.To them, the most important thing is to build a full collaborative partnership with their clients, in order to best advise them. Crafters donât blindly follow their clientsâ requirements: as specialists in software craftsmanship, they are best suited to assist the clientsâ projects reach their full potential, by understanding what is really need, providing alternatives, suggesting improvements, explaining why some decisions are better than others and helping them achieve their intent in the best way.The crafters strive to deliver not only working software but also well designed, coded and tested software, because they respect the time and money their clients expend in their projects and try to maximize their investment return.According to Mancuso, when developers do not have this kind of mindset, they see themselves as factory workers, who work mechanically, doing the same things over and over. They donât add value to the customer, they donât try to do a better work. Worse, they donât question their clients even when they see that they are taking wrong decisions. As a consequence, these developers are treated as the cheapest piece of the software development environment, working in a stressful environment, delivering software that will be buggy, harder to maintain and harder to modify as the time goes by.After explaining the above, Mancuso provides orientation on how developers could improve themselves and gradually become true masters of their craft.This book should be read not only by developers but also by anyone that works in the software development business, because it shows how developers are the ultimate responsible for the success of any software project and how to empower them to do their best.As Mancuso points out, nowadays the quality of the code produced by the developers affects a company so strongly that they can be the reason for a company to succeed or close.A software that is well designed, well coded, well tested and well maintained will be a strong asset to any company: it will be useful, stable, resilient and robust; it will be easy to maintain, change and evolve; it will be done once and improved as needed; it will be quick to be adapted to market changes; in sum, it will be a driving force for the company, empowering its business.On the contrary, a software carelessly coded, bad designed and poorly tested will be the opposite. In these days of constant change and very fast pace, a company cannot allow itself to be slow to react to the market changes. It cannot have a buggy interface with their users, because brand trust and value is very hard to obtain, but too much easy to lost â and sometimes it is almost impossible to recover. A company that has to discard and replace an application because it has become too brittle to change after few years is losing valuable time and money, commodities not abundant these days.In short, for developers, this book is about why and how to be a software craftsman; for other professionals in the industry, it shows why developers have become a key point in the success of any business and how to create very successful relationships with them.
gustavo sanchez –
No es un libro técnico. Es un libro de transición de un desarrollo orientado a debug hacia una codificación orientada a buen diseño, TDD y metodologÃas ágiles del lado técnico. Si ya eres un desarrollador que lleva las metodologÃas ágiles en practica, codifica claro y limpio, y tiene muy marcada la búsqueda por la excelencia técnica, este libro tiene poco que ofrecer. Si estas en el proceso de mejorar como profesional, es muy recomendable.
akardon –
Nice book on software craftsmanship. I would recommend it to every developer. It could change your career path in a good way.
Dragan Nikolic –
I’ve been working in software development industry for more than 25 years and I found that examples from this book are very similar to my experience. I also fully agree with the author’s view how to solve software development puzzle. An amazing book that deserves its place on the book shelve of every professional software developer or should I say software craftsman 🙂
Sai –
A very insightful book. A must read for all who write software code