Is vs. Should

"Is" vs. "Should"

We have a long tradition in the software field of debating whether software development is art or science. Thirty years ago, Donald Knuth began writing a seven-volume series, The Art of Computer Programming. The first three volumes stand at 2,200 pages, suggesting the full seven might amount to more than 5,000 pages. If that's what the art of computer programming looks like, I'm not sure I ever want to see the science!

People who advocate programming as art point to the aesthetic aspects of software development and argue that science does not allow for such inspiration and creative freedom. People who advocate programming as science point to many programs' high error rates and argue that such low reliability is intolerable creative freedom be damned. Both these views are incomplete and both ask the wrong question. Software development is art. It is science. It is craft, archeology, fire fighting, sociology, and a host of other activities. It is amateurish in some quarters, professional in others. It is as many different things as there are different people programming. But the proper question is not "What is software development currently?" but rather "What should professional software development be?" In my opinion, the answer to that question is clear: Professional software development should be engineering. Is it? No. But should it be? Unquestionably, yes.