As someone who started programming a long time ago (roughly 20 years, now that I think about it), but only in recent years entered the world of real software development, the mastery of day-to-day-challenges happens to consist of two main topics: First, inour rapidly evolving field we never run out of new technologies to learn, and then, there’s a certain engineering aspect underlying, how to do things in a certain manner, with lots of input every year.
So after I recently shared some of such ideas with my friends — I indeed still have a few ones of those), I wondered: How is it, that in the modern software development world, most of the information about managing things actually comes from the field itself, and rather feeding back its ideas of project management, quality, etc. into the non-software-subspaces of the world? (Ideas like the Agile movement, Software Craftmanship, the calls of doing things Lean and Clean, nowadays prospered so much that you see their application or modification in several other industries. Like advertisement, just as an example.)
I see a certain kind of brain food in this question. What tells software development apart from other current fields, so that there is a broad discussion and considerable input at its base level? After all, if you plan on becoming someone who builds houses, makes cars, or manages cities, you wouldn‘t engage in such a vivid culture of „how“ to do things, rather focussing on the „what“.
Of course, I might be mistaken in this view. But, by asking: what actually tells software development apart from these other fields of producing something, I see a certain kind of brain food, helpful for approaching every day tasks and valuing better tips over worse ones.
So, what can that be?
1. Quite peculiar is the low entry threshold in being able to call yourself a “programmer”. With the lots of resources you get at relatively little cost (assumption: you have a computer with a working internet connection), you have a lot of channels by which you can learn the „what“ of software development first, and saving the „how“ for later. If you plan on building a house, there‘s not a bazillion of books, tutorials, and videos, after all.
2. Similarly, there‘s the rather low cost of failure when drafting a quick hobby project. Not always will a piece of code that you write in your free time tell yourself „hey man, you ever thought about some better kind of architecture?“ – which is, why bad habits can stick and even feel right. If you choose the „wrong“ mindset, you don‘t always lose heaps of money, and neither do you, if you switch your strategy once in a while, you also don‘t automatically. (you probably will, though, if you are too careless in this process).
3. Furthermore, there‘s the dynamic extension of how your project is going to be used („Scope Creep“). One would build a skyscraper in a different way than a bungalow (I‘m not an expert, though), but with software, it often feels like adding a simple feature here, extending the scope there, unless you hit a point where all its interdependencies are in a complex state of conflict…
4. Then, it‘s a matter of transparency: If you sit in a badly designed car, it becomes rather obvious when it always exhausts clouds of black smoke. Or your house always smells like scents of fresh toilet. Of course, a well designed piece of software will come with a great user experience, but as you can see in many commercial products, there also is quite some presence of low-than-average-but-still-somehow-doing-what-it-should software. Probably users are more tolerant with software than with cars?
5. Also, as in most technical fields, it is not the case that „pure consultants“ are widely received in a positive light. For most nerds, you don‘t get a lot of credibility if you talk about best practices without having got your hands dirty over a longer period of time. Ergo, it needs some experienced software programmers in order to advise less experienced software programmers… but surely, it‘s questionable whether this is a good thing.
6. After all, the requirements for someone who develops a project might be very different in each field. From my academical past in computational Physics, I know that there is quite some demand for „quick & dirty“ solutions. Need to add some Dark Matter in your model here? Well, plug this formula in and check the results. Not every user has the budget or liberty in creating a solid structure of your program. If you want to have a new laboratory building, of course, you very well want it it do be designed as good as it can get.
All in all, these observations somehow boil down to the question, whether software development is to be seen more like a set of various engineering skills, rather like a handcraft, an art, or a complex program of study. It is the question, whether the “crack” in this field is the one who does complex arithmetics in its head, or the one who just gets what the customer wants. I like thinking about such peculiar modes of thought, as they help me in understanding what kinds of things I should learn next.
Or is there something completely else to it?
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