Software craftsmanship and software engineering both aim to deliver high-quality, reliable software, but differ in their approaches. Software engineering focuses on macro goals and processes, while craftsmanship emphasizes mastering skills through experience. Both are used at Groupon, where engineering practices like architecture, testing and iteration are combined with craftsmanship techniques including apprenticeships and pair programming.

1. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
VS
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
Andy Maleh
Software Engineer
Groupon

2. OUTLINE
Definition
Similarities and Differences
Applications at Groupon

3. DEFINITION
One of the original definitions of Software
Engineering (NATO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
CONFERENCE 1968):
Software engineering is the establishment of sound engineering
principles in order to obtain economical software that is reliable and
works efficiently on real machines.

4. DEFINITION
On Software Craftsmanship by Pete McBreen:
Becoming a good software developer involves a lot more than
just learning to write programs. Software development is a
craft, it blends science, engineering, mathematics, linguistics
and art.

5. DEFINITION
The book The Pragmatic Programmer paints software
craftsmanship as similar to traditional medieval
European craftsmanship where an apprentice learns a
craft under the guidance of a master gradually climbing
his way into becoming a skilled journeyman, eventually
branching off on his own and working towards mastery
of the craft.

6. SIMILARITY
Shared engineering and craftsmanship goals:
• Meeting customer needs
• Delivering high quality software
• Ensuring timely release
• Minimizing risk of failure

7. ISSUES WITH
ENGINEERING
 Engineers often seem to believe that they can completely
streamline the process of building software, with complete
control and predictability. And, this belief seems to be process
independent. In other words, even engineers who are strong
advocates of agile often believe that if you do a, b, and c, you
will get the results you want.

8. ISSUES WITH
ENGINEERING
Engineers often think that one has to learn
all, most, or many best practices before successfully
building software.

9. ISSUES WITH
ENGINEERING
Some engineers seem to think that best practices
apply everywhere or in every situation. More
experienced engineers are aware that different
contexts require different best practices though.

10. MITIGATION IN
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Craftsmen see software development more as an
art that emerges and less as a science that can be
controlled, so they let time and experience shape up
their skills in successfully completing software
projects.

11. MITIGATION IN
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Craftsmen often discover their own best practices
from their experiences, which often better fit their
situations.

12. MITIGATION IN
CRAFTSMANSHIP
Craftsmen do not religiously follow even their
own best practices, often transcending them when
they do not make sense in a new situation anymore.
They thus rely more on their intuition and gut
feelings to succeed.

13. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
REVISITED
Even Tom DeMarco, one of the early key figures in
the software engineering world, famous for the quote
"You cannot control what you cannot measure", recently
renounced the controlled development approach in an
article posted by the IEEE, titled "Software Engineering:
An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?"

14. DIFFERENCE
While engineering is about the macro goal of
delivering economical software that is reliable and
efficient, craftsmanship is about the micro process
of mastering the skills to achieve that macro goal.

16. ENGINEERING'S GOT A
BAD REP
Unfortunately, engineering got some undeserved
negative associations over time:
• Strict
• Big Up Front Design
• Heavy-weight process (Waterfall?)
• Everything is predictable
• Measure everything

17. MOSTLY BECAUSE OF
THINKING TRAPS
 Reactive vs Proactive thinking
 Getting too attached to words instead of seeking the meaning
behind them
 Accepting education from the media instead of digging for
knowledge personally
 Silver bullet syndrome
 Black & White thinking

18. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
IS ALIVE AND WELL AT
GROUPON

19. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
• System Health Measurability

20. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
• Usability Design and A/B Testing

21. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
• Release Engineering

22. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
• Performance Engineering

23. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
Software Architecture
Website
Deal Service
Order Service
Mobile
User Service

24. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
Verification and Acceptance Testing
• As a user who has seen the personalize wizard
• When I advance past step 1
• And I refresh the page
• And I open the personalize wizard
• Then I should see the step I was previously on

25. SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
AT GROUPON
Iterative Development and Velocity Tracking

26. SOFTWARE
CRAFTSMANSHIP IS
POPULAR WITH GROUPON
ENGINEERS

27. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
Apprenticeship program

28. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
Inter-branch employee swap

29. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
Pair-Programming

30. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
Internal Training Courses
Often given by Noel Rappin
Author of Professional Ruby
on Rails and
Rails Test Prescriptions

31. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
High Encouragement to Present at Conferences
• Check out my talk Rails Engines Patterns at
RailsConf 2012 on Apr 23, 2012

32. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
Hosting Conferences and Meetups
• Weekly GeekFest Lunch (public)
• Weekly Brown Bag (internal)
• Annual Groupon University (internal)

33. SOFTWARE CRAFTSMANSHIP
AT GROUPON
Having a few Masters around
• Michael Feathers, author of Working Effectively
with Legacy Code, and alumni of Uncle Bob’s
Object Mentor software consultancy.
• Aaron Bedra, author of Programming Clojure, and
contributor to the Clojure programming language.

34. SOFTWARE
APPRENTICESHIP AT
GROUPON

35. SOFTWARE
APPRENTICESHIP
AT GROUPON
Potential over Credential
6 Months with 3 milestones
A mentor oversees apprentice entire period

36. SOFTWARE
APPRENTICESHIP
AT GROUPON
Apprentice pair-programs with different people in
different teams
Apprentice spends about 50% of his time on his
personal project
Apprentice presents his personal project to senior
developers (journeymen) at the milestones

37. Q & A

38. REVIEW
Definition
Similarity and Difference
Applications at Groupon

39. REFERENCES
Work at Obtiva and Groupon
The Pragmatic Programmer book by Andy Hunt and
Dave Thomas
Software Craftsmanship book by Pete McBreen
Software Apprenticeship Patterns book by Dave
Hoover and Adewale Oshineye

40. GROUPON IS HIRING
Potential over Credential
Ruby on Rails, Java, or System Operations
Agile, Test Driven Development, Pair Programming
Passion to foster a collaborative environment and
partner with business on delivering value

41. CONTACT
Andy Maleh / Software Engineer / Groupon
Email: amaleh {at} groupon {dot} com
Twitter: @AndyMaleh
Blog: http://andymaleh.blogspot.com