Individual Pragmatists, Large Teams

Some people feel that there is no room for individuality on large teams or complex projects. "Software construction is an engineering discipline," they say, "that breaks down if individual team members make decisions for themselves ."

We disagree .

The construction of software should be an engineering discipline. However, this doesn't preclude individual craftsmanship. Think about the large cathedrals built in Europe during the Middle Ages. Each took thousands of person- years of effort, spread over many decades. Lessons learned were passed down to the next set of builders, who advanced the state of structural engineering with their accomplishments. But the carpenters, stonecutters, carvers, and glass workers were all craftspeople, interpreting the engineering requirements to produce a whole that transcended the purely mechanical side of the construction. It was their belief in their individual contributions that sustained the projects:

We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.

Quarry worker's creed

Within the overall structure of a project there is always room for individuality and craftsmanship. This is particularly true given the current state of software engineering. One hundred years from now, our engineering may seem as archaic as the techniques used by medieval cathedral builders seem to today's civil engineers , while our craftsmanship will still be honored.