Software Craftsman, The: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride (Robert C. Martin Series)

I’ve been sympathizing with the notion of “software craftsmanship” 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. Sandro’s 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 “being a professional developer” is not about wearing a fancy suit or using expensive enterprise-grade solutions; it is about constantly striving to deliver excellent solutions that solve customers’ 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 you’re truly committed to excellence, you can't go wrong with this one.

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.

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.

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.

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?)

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 !!!

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.