I read a good blog post the other day (http://softwarecraftsmanship.oreilly.com/news/2008/8/8/uncle-bob-on-craftsmanship-at-agile-2008)

It was a comment on a statment by Uncle Bob:  "Craftmanship over crap", but in the above mentioned blog post Dave Hoover modified the statement to "Craftmanship over heroics".

I have really taken this statement in, since it speaks to me.

So let me explain to you what it means to me:

Imagine having a carpenter work on your roof, while he works for you, you think it takes a lot of time. And furthermore repairing the roof is rather expensive.

So you talk to the carpenter and tell him that its taking too much time and its too expensive.

He says: "OK, I'll help your out, I'll cut 2 days off and some materiel costs as well"

Great your are satisfied, you have a good skilled carpenter (a craftman you think) who suggest he will get finished earlier and at a lower price. He is a real hero in your eyes!

So he finishes, you pay and everyone is happy.

Now a few years later there's a big storm and its raining.

Suddenly water is dripping down in your livingroom and kitchen.

So you call the carpenter and ask him what is wrong.

He replies: "Oh!, don't you remember we cut off two days? Well I didn't put on any roofing underlay, since it would take me two days, and the material costs as well, don't you remember we agreed on that?".

Naturally at this stage your are stunned, you thought you were working with a professional (A craftman), and then he chooses to do something like that !(trying to be a hero, but now he's not!)

Well this is a very strong analogy to the business of IT, there are lots of things (actually most of the things we do) that our customers don't understand, and hence they try to push us and make us cut the price.

So the question is are we going to not put in the roofing under lay, nobody will know - well at least not right now.

But when you cut corners here you are going to end up with being in big trouble.

So choose craftmanship over heroics.