Clean Code Developer

Professionalism = awareness + principles

Software development needs professionals. But what are professionals? People who earn money with software development? No, we think there is more and something else to it. Professionalism in software development has nothing to do with money. It also has only a limited connection with a specific training path. We know professional software developers who earn little or no money with their software and we know professional software developers who have neither a diploma nor a doctorate.

Minimum requirements for professionalism

For us, professionalism means two things:

• A professional software developer consciously deals with the profession.
  In other words, he reflects on his product, his way of working, his materials and tools. A professional software developer is not simply satisfied when his boss or customer is satisfied. Nor is he simply satisfied with what a manufacturer recommends. Instead, he constantly observes and checks his results and strives to further develop himself and the profession.
• A professional software developer has an internal value system.
  He checks his results and actions against this value system. Only if his work corresponds to this value system does he feel that it has been done well, professionally. He therefore strives to remain true to this value system even under adverse circumstances, under pressure from customers or manufacturers.

This may sound a little antiquated or sectarian in a nutshell. Should software developers adopt a guild code or even swear an oath of allegiance? No, that's not what we mean, of course. Nevertheless, in the absence of a consensus on what exactly constitutes "good software development", we believe that a "lowest common denominator" is needed. The industry - and here we are only referring to .NET software development - needs a quality standard or at least a horizon of expectations for professionalism. The days when anyone who had ever programmed something in BASIC was sufficiently qualified to work in a team are over. Equally, however, the time has not yet come when the presentation of a computer science diploma would really say something about the ability to develop software. (Disclaimer: Nothing against diploma programs in computer science! But who doesn't know a computer science graduate who got through their studies without programming more than a few lines?)

Clean code as a foundation

So what can be done for more (visible) professionalism in software development? We believe that the industry should simply take a small step after recognizing the problem. There is no need to redefine the curricula of Masters courses, nor is the founding of an association mandatory. It is much easier for us to believe that "it" would be better if we had all read just one book together. The united agreement to the statements in just one book would create a consensus that could achieve a great deal.

We believe that with Clean Code from Robert C. Martin to have found such a book that is worth reading together. It is not a perfect book and we do not agree with everything in it unreservedly - but it is a book "in the right spirit": it is an expression of profound reflection and has the courage to formulate a fundamental value system.

Clean Code is not about platform or technology or a programming paradigm. So you don't have to be a fan of .NET or Java or ASP.NET or SVN or OOP to benefit from it. It's more about the underlying substrate: code as source code and code as a structured expression of functionality. For code as the lowest common denominator between software developers of all persuasions, Clean Code describes a set of principles and best practices as the lowest common denominator.

Not that there aren't other books that do similar things. Us but Clean Code happened to appeal to us in such a way that we want to use it as a crystallization seed for our idea of the Clean Code Developer.

Ultimately, however, even that is not set in stone. An even better book may be published tomorrow. That's good! But that doesn't change what we think constitutes professionalism. So let's just get started. "Don't take too long, head down" - that's what the people of Hamburg say when they have a Korn (North German schnapps) in their hand. And that's how we want to keep it: In the spirit of the agility movement, not planning to the point of unconsciousness, but doing something. Take a small step towards more professionalism.

Who would like to take part? Here here we go...