The Art of Software Gardening

The Art of Software Gardening

Transcript

1. The Art of
   Software
   Gardening
   

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2. I am here because I love Swedish coffee
   Hello!
   I am Patroklos Papapetrou
   I am here because I love Swedish coffee and I
   am passionate about clean code and software
   gardening
   You can find me at @ppapapetrou76
   

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3. 97 of conferences
   %
   attendees don't care
   about speakers bio
   

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4. Art VS Software VS Gardening
   How I came up with this topic?
   1
   

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5. “
   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, 2011
   http://www.chrisaitchison.com/2011/05/03/you-are-not-a-software-engineer/
   

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6. Software engineer
   is the most failed
   ever job title
   #EpicFail
   

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7. Art VS Software VS Gardening
   

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8. Art VS Software VS Gardening
   So what are we?
   ◦ Artists?
   ◦ Engineers?
   ◦ Gardeners?
   ◦ None of them?
   ◦ All of them?
   

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9. Writing software is
   about a lot more
   than slinging code
   

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10. Writing software is about a lot more than
    slinging code
    In the beginning of my career I had only one
    goal : Be the fastest code monkey
    

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11. Writing software is about a lot more than
    slinging code
    Suddenly my whole world collapsed when a
    'senior' developer looked at my code
    

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12. What was wrong with me?
    I didn't care about
    ◦ the code I was putting to the
    system
    ◦ who will maintain it in the
    future
    ◦ who will use it
    ◦ Its behavior when new code
    would be added.
    

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13. What about Agile?
    Is software gardening something else?
    2
    

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14. Agile principles vs Software
    Gardening
    A software gardener
    ◦ Easier adopts / follows agile
    practices
    ◦ Easier changes his mindset
    ◦ Moves agility to a higher level
    

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15. Agile principles vs Software
    Gardening
    You can be a brilliant software gardener while
    using waterfall or other monolithic process
    

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16. What about Software
    Craftsmanship?
    Yet another new fancy term / buzz word?
    3
    

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17. Craftsmanship vs Gardening
    ◦ Craft is about creating objects
    ◦ Better compare code to
    flowers and software systems
    to gardens
    

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18. What is software gardening
    4
    

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19. “
    Software gardening is not a
    practice, an attitude, a skill or a
    special knowledge.
    It’s all of them plus the you
    have for software development.
    And this you should show it
    continuously, day by day, every
    moment in every single line of
    code you write.
    Patroklos Papapetrou, 2014
    http://softwaregarden.io
    

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20. Why this analogy?
    ◦ Code as flowers, systems as gardens
    ◦ You don’t just plant some flower seeds
    today and expect to see them blossom
    the next day
    ◦
    

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21. Why this analogy?
    ◦ Deliver a bug-free (no-disease), fully-
    covered by tests (protected by future
    diseases), and well-designed (correctly
    irritated) feature (flower)
    

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22. Treat code as it's
    the last flower your
    wife/husband/boyf
    riend/girlfriend will
    ever smell
    

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23. Why this analogy?
    ◦ Gardeners just uproot anything that’s
    blocking their design or doesn’t fit in the
    garden. Do the same with your code!
    ◦ Throw away any code that’s not needed
    (withered flowers) any more or is causing
    too much troubles (unwanted plants).
    

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24. Why this analogy?
    ◦ Be ready to adapt on unwanted external
    environment changes (rain/wind/cold)
    

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25. Why this analogy?
    ◦ Or remove any internal environment
    roadblocks (warms and other bugs)
    

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26. What do I need to become a
    software gardener?
    5
    

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27. What it takes to become a
    software gardener
    Skills
    

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28. The Skills
    Soft
    Patience
    (Do not over-irritate)
    No multi-tasking
    (one flower at a time)
    Proactive / adapt to
    changes
    (snow/wind/bugs)
    Technical
    Write clean code
    (colorful flowers)
    Unit testing
    (fragrant gardens)
    Be polyglot
    (pick the right soil,
    fertilizer)
    

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29. The Skills
    Technical
    Soft
    Ideal
    Software
    Gardener
    

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30. What it takes to become a
    software gardener
    

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31. The Attitude
    ◦ Commitment – Love what you do
    ◦ Share knowledge
    ◦ Be a mentor
    ◦ Accept criticism
    ◦ Self-learner
    

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32. What it takes to become a
    software gardener
    

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33. The practices
    ◦ TDD
    ◦ Code reviews
    ◦ Automate-automate-automate
    ◦ Re-factoring
    ◦ Boy-scout approach
    

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34. What it takes to become a
    software gardener
    

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35. Don't forget!
    Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
    you are now welcome to ”Göteborg 1”
    for a lovely lunch that is sponsored by
    

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36. Thanks!
    ANY QUESTIONS?
    You can find me at
    @ppapapetrou76
    Http://softwaregarden.io
    https://leanpub.com/art_software_gardening
    Rate this presentation at :
    https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRQJZ5R
    

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