Saturday, March 20, 2010

How to be a software craftsman

While in London, I gave a talk to the London Ruby Users Group (LRUG). This was a shortened version of the talk I did earlier in the day at QCon. It is about one of the essences of software craftsmanship: being a better developer and how that relates to the terms 'apprentice' and 'journeyman.' LRUG is hosted at Skills Matter, and they put the video of my talk online.

Plus, bonus: definitive answer to the question of how to be a software craftsman!

I had a great time talking to them, and it was very encouraging to see the number of hands that were raised when I asked how many people practiced test-driven development. Thanks to various influences, test-first and test-driven development are pretty common when you talk to people active in the ruby community.

After the talk, we went to a bar. Thanks to everyone for the great conversations and ideas.