Welcome to Coaching Comments!

Someone once said something along the lines of, "If bridges were built like software, you'd have to be foolish to cross them regularly."

Isn't it about time that the software development profession rose above its pedestrian level and became a real engineering discipline? Today there is a wealth of experience and a panoply of tested software development techniques that form the backbone of what could become true, professional software development. For example, design patterns provide a vocabulary of "building blocks" to transform amorphous piles of code into comprehensible collections of mechanisms. Extreme programming draws on human nature to structure the development process so it makes steady forward progress. Task planning yields believable schedules and ferrets out risks and wishful thinking.

The beauty of this particular point in time is that theories are no longer just theories -- bleeding-edge software developers have generated volumes of data about what works in practice and what doesn't. Now is the time for applying what works!

The column is for software developers and their managers to learn about and to reinforce their knowledge of these software practices. I'll try to be both a teacher and coach. Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.

Here's to bringing the software craft to a true engineering profession.