Questiong about Software Craftsman : is book good for beginners ?

[doudou pan]

Hi Sandro,

I went through the content list and it looks like this book covering some very interesting topics.
I only learnt the theory in school regarding to software engineering.
But I don't actually have much real world experiences. ( only 4 years in 5 outsourcing companies )
Am I able to understand the software craftsman book ? Is this book a good starting point ? or is this a intermediary book for team lead ?


Thanks,
Pan

[Junilu Lacar]

I find that books like this are mostly philosophical in nature. Maybe "philosophical" is not quite the right term but I'm at a loss for what other word I can use instead. Anyway, I think readers who have more experience will be able to relate to the material more than those who haven't really had to deal with the issues on that level, "that level" being somewhat difficult to pin down but again, those with more experience will probably know what that means.

That said, there are certainly many things less experienced developers can gain from books like this. If you are into reading books like "The Art of War" and "The Book of Five Rings" or even things like "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" or "Everything I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" then reading a book like "The Software Craftsman" should be about the same kind of experience.

I liken it to going to a dojo and listening to a sensei wax philosophical about their art and the "Zen" things and you as a white belt just sitting there listening, trying to absorb, not quite understanding where all this is going. But then as you progress in your study, you will see and experience things and be able to relate them to what sensei was saying before. Sometimes a light goes on in your head and you say "Oh, so that's what he was talking about. Huh, how true!"

(Edit: I seem to keep referring to the book being promoted as "Software Craftsmanship" instead of "The Software Craftsman". My apologies to Sandro for the mixup. I'll correct the references as I find them)

[Junilu Lacar]

Regarding the word I was looking for about the nature of this book, I think Sandro provided the answer in Chapter 4 - "The Software Craftsmanship Attitude", in the section "Keeping Ourselves Up To Date", subsection "Books, many books".

Sandro writes about Behavioral Books which are

... books that make us more efficient when working in teams and better professionals in general... Books in this category will cover the more human and professional side of software development, including topics like Agile methodologies, Software Craftsmanship, Lean software development, psychology, philosophy, and management.

[Sandro Mancuso]

Hi Pan

doudou pan wrote:
Am I able to understand the software craftsman book ? Is this book a good starting point ? or is this a intermediary book for team lead ?

I believe that as a reader, Junilu Lacar put it very well in his replies.

When I wrote the book, I must confess that I didn't have a "target" audience in mind. I just wanted to write about Software Craftsmanship, my experiences, and ideas. Because of that, parts of the book can be very difficult for a person without much experience to understand and parts of the book may be quite basic for a very experienced person.

All in all, I believe that the first half of the book will be very interesting for you since it describes what Software Craftsmanship is, and most importantly, the attitude of a craftsman. I believe the first half of the book has loads of advices that I wish I had been given at the beginning of my career. My book is a "behavioural book" and not a technical book.

The second half talks about bring Software Craftsmanship to organisations. If you identify yourself with Software Craftsmanship in the first half, the second half may give you some ammunition to bring it to you workplace. Maybe you haven't encountered some of the problems that I try to address yet, but hopefully things will make more sense in the future, as you gain more experience. You can then re-read the second half of the book in a few years and say "A-ha, that's what he meant" ;)