the art of software gardening

DevTernity 2015 - @softwaregarden

The Art of Software Gardening

Patroklos Papapetrou@softwaregarden

Riga, December 2015, @Devternity


A talk presented by Patroklos Papapetrou, a Software Gardener and Code Quality Maniac...


… and my little friends who can do/be everything just like us, the developers!


“One of the most inspiring talks I’ve ever heard. I think I will change my title to software gardener right away!”


“Might damage the reputation of software

engineers. I might make the same

parallel with for instance a cleaner,

child carer or factory worker”


“You are not a Software Engineer. You do not build skyscrapers. You do not build bridges.

You grow gardens.

You are a Software Gardener.”

Chris Aithcison, 2011http://www.chrisaitchison.com/2011/05/03/you-are-not-a-software-engineer/


Software Engineering has been used to describe "building of software systems which are so large or so complex that they are built by a team or teams of engineers"

Fundamentals of Software Engineering http://www.prenhall.com/ghezzi/


Software engineering means applying the principles of engineering to the software development field.

IEEE Definition


Software Engineer is the most inaccurate job description ever

#EpicFail


What is the most-used term in software development?

BUG


Let me tell you a story about a happy developer (me) a long time ago...


Suddenly my whole world

collapsed when a 'senior' developer

looked at my code


What was wrong with me?

I didn't care...


Software Gardening

A reality or (why) another useless analogy?


http://softwaregarden.io/manifesto

The manifesto

http://softwaregarden.io/manifesto


We treat software systems as gardens and code as flowers.

We constantly mentor young developers and we share our knowledge at every opportunity

We treat customers as the people who will walk in our garden…

…..


What about Agile?

Is software gardening something else?


What about software as a craft?

Craft is about creating objects

Software is “alive”, organic You have to be prepared to interact with to improve all the time.


Why THIS analogy?


Evolving design◦◦ You don’t just plant

some flower seeds today and expect to see them blossom the next day


Continuous Re-factoring

Gardeners just uproot anything that’s blocking their design or doesn’t fit in the garden. Do the same with your code!


Continuous Re-factoring

Throw away any code that’s not needed (withered flowers) any more or is causing too much troubles (unwanted plants).


Treat code as it's the last flower in

the earth


There's nothing permanent except change(Τα πάντα ρει – Panta rhei)

Be ready to change and adapt on unwanted external environment changes (rain/wind/cold)

Heraclitus – Greek Philosopher


Fault tolerance

Software systems (like gardens) expected to be perfect. Small errors (bugs) can be disastrous for a whole company


Find the (business) value

Deliver a bug-free (no-disease), fully-covered by tests (protected by future diseases), and well-designed (correctly irrigated) feature (flower)


Software gardening is not just a practice, an attitude,

a skill or a special knowledge.

It’s all of them plus the passion you have for

software development.


And this passion you should show it

continuously, day by day, every moment in every single line of code you

write.


What do I need to become a software gardener?


SKILLS


ATTITUDE


BEST PRACTICES


TOOLS


Software gardening is not just a practice, an attitude,

a skill or a special knowledge.

It’s all of them plus the passion you have for

software development.


Shameless slidehttps://leanpub.com/art_software_gardening

The Art of Software Gardening

A practical guide to learn how to treat software systems as

gardens


Thank you!

Happy to take questions