Coding Horror Software Engineering Dead

programming and human factors
by Jeff Atwood Software Engineering: Dead?
I used to be utterly floored when I examine this new IEEE report by Tom DeMarco (pdf). See if you're able to tell why.
My early metrics book, Managing Application Tasks: Management, Measurement,Office Standard 2010 X86, and Estimates [1986],Windows 7 Enterprise Sale, played a position while in the way numerous budding software engineers quantified function and planned their tasks. In my reflective mood, I'm wondering,Office 2010 Serial, was its advice correct at the time, is it still relevant, and do I still believe that metrics are a must for any successful software development effort? My answers are no, no, and no.
I'm gradually coming to the conclusion that application engineering is an idea whose time has come and gone.
Software development is and always will be somewhat experimental. The actual software construction isn't necessarily experimental, but its conception is. And this is where our focus ought to be. It's where our focus always ought to have been.
If your head just exploded, don't be alarmed. Mine did too. To somewhat reduce the migraine headache you might now be experiencing from reading the above summary, I highly recommend scanning the entire two page report pdf.
Tom DeMarco is one of the most deeply respected authority figures within the software program industry, having coauthored the brilliant and seminal Peopleware as well as a lot of other near-classic software project management books like Waltzing With Bears. For a guy of Tom's caliber, experience, and influence to come out and just flat out say that Application Engineering is Dead …
… well, as Keanu Reeves once said, whoa.
That's kind of a big deal. It's scary.
And yet, it's also a release. It's as if a crushing weight has been lifted from my chest. I can publicly acknowledge what I've slowly, gradually realized over the last 5 to 10 years of my career as a software developer: what we do is craftsmanship, not engineering. And I can say this proudly, unashamedly, with nary a shred of self-doubt.
I think Joel Spolsky, my business partner, recently had a similar epiphany. He wrote about it in How Hard Could It Be?: The Unproven Path:
I have pretty deeply held ideas about how to develop software,Cheap Windows 7, but I mostly kept them to myself. That turned out to be a good thing, because as the organization took shape,Jdownloader On Windows7beta Jd Community Update Terbaru 2011 2012, nearly all these principles were abandoned.
As for what this all means, I'm still trying to figure that out. I abandoned seven long-held principles about business and software engineering, and nothing terrible happened. Have I been too cautious in the past? Perhaps I was willing to be a little reckless because this was just a side project for me and not my main business. The experience is certainly a useful reminder that it's OK to throw caution to the wind when you're building something completely new and have no idea where it's going to take you.
Yes, I could add a lot of defensive software program engineering caveats here about the particulars of the application project you're working on: its type (mission critical, of course), its size (Google scale, naturally), the audience (millions of daily users,Office Ultimate 2007 Product Key, obviously), and so forth.
But I'm not going to do that.
What DeMarco seems to be saying -- and, at least, what I am definitely saying -- is that control is ultimately illusory on application development tasks. If you want to move your project forward, the only reliable way to do that is to cultivate a deep sense of computer software craftsmanship and professionalism around it.
The guys and gals who show up every day eager to hone their craft, who are passionate about building stuff that matters to them, and perhaps in some small way, to the rest of the world -- those are the people and jobs that will ultimately succeed.
Everything else is just noise.
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