A Software Journeyman

For the past year or two I have been hearing the words 'software' and 'craftsmanship' used together more and more frequently. Uncle Bob has been talking about it for most of a decade (click the craftsman link). So today when I heard about Corey Haines' pair programming tour I decided these two things must be connected. Corey is traveling through Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Every place he stops he is going to meet different software craftsmen and pair with them. He is a true Journeyman software craftsman. Wikipedia has this to say about Journeymen craftsmen.

In parts of Europe, as in later medieval Germany, spending time as a journeyman (Geselle), moving from one town to another to gain experience of different workshops, was an important part of the training of an aspirant master. Carpenters in Germany have retained the tradition of traveling journeymen until today, although only a small minority still practice it.

Very cool! If you want a chance to hear from aspirant master craftsman, Corey Haines, he will be talking about his travels as a Journeyman programmer and his chain of command gem at the December meeting of the Chicago Ruby User Group. Details are here.