A Pivotal Craftsperson on Software Development Today

Pivotal’s Corey Innis’ job function, on paper at least, falls under the traditional category of software developer or engineer. Indeed, their “official” business title is staff software engineer at Pivotal. But instead, Innis says they have claimed another job title that is more reflective of what they actually do. Innis’ true title, they say, is “software craftsperson.” “At really healthy software and information technology organizations, the work is really much more like that of a craftsman than it is as an engineer,” Innis said. “I’m also really interested in diversity in the workplace, including gender diversity, so I claimed ‘person’ instead of 'craftsman,' as in 'craftsperson.' So, that’s where that’s coming from.” In this latest episode of The New Stack Makers podcast, Innis described how software development and culture have evolved over the course of his career that began in the pre-dot.com bust days of the 1990s. Over the past two decades, coding and software engineering have also certainly evolved into a new culture and mindset — much of which DevOps and agile development have fostered — that, at the end of the day, reflect a more craftsperson collective mindset.