Are You a Develoment Professional?

The past decade brought the rise of the Agile movement, which split into two parts-Scrum, dominating the project management practices of agile; and XP, dominating its technical practices. Of the two, Scrum has had the greater impact as the industry quickly grasped its team-based benefits. During the rapid adoption of Scrum, technical practices were not being ignored. Programmers were gradually adopting XP and related development practices. In 2008, the Software Craftsmanship movement was founded as evidenced by the Manifesto for Software Craftsmanship. Driven by the tremendous improvement in programming accuracy and style that comes from agile principles and practices, this movement strives to "raise the bar" of professionalism and quality in the software industry. We can-and must-choose the disciplines, attitudes, and practices that comprise our profession, and then we must live within those bounds. We must say "No" when asked to breach those bounds. Robert (Uncle Bob) Martin reviews the history that has led us to this point and suggests a set of disciplines, attitudes, and practices that may well become the future definition of the development profession.