engineers as gardeners

I have let go of the idea that software development is planning and execution.

Never forget, agile is here to save management, not software.

Gardening, not architecting

The metaphor I keep coming back to is a garden:

• planting seeds: I start with an idea or a prototype and let it grow into something
• tending: infrastructure and build pipelines are the watering and the feeding
• adapting: bugs and incidents are pests and weather. I deal with them as they arrive
• growing: a new feature is a new seed, or a branch grafted onto something already alive

What I like about it is the ending. An architect finishes a building. A gardener never finishes anything, and I have never once shipped something that was finished.

It changed what I pay attention to. Soil before blueprints, and whether the thing survives me being away for a week.