Software Craftsmanship

Software Craftsmanship represents an alternative way of describing the activity of writing computer software that focuses on the mastery of individuals, not the knowledge of a body of manufacturing principles.

Freeman Dyson, in his essay [http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/280/5366/1014?view=full "Science as a Craft Industry"] , expands software crafts to include mastery of using software as a driver for economic benefit:

:"In spite of the rise of Microsoft and other giant producers, software remains in large part a craft industry. Because of the enormous variety of specialized applications, there will always be room for individuals to write software based on their unique knowledge. There will always be niche markets to keep small software companies alive. The craft of writing software will not become obsolete. And the craft of using software creatively is flourishing even more than the craft of writing it."

While software engineering appropriately describes the processes necessary to build large, complex systems like those at work doing tasks like flying the Space Shuttle, software craftsmanship as modelled after the guild tradition in the building trades is in fact how the bulk of software is actually written.

----"Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative" is the title of a 2001 book by Pete McBreen.