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When I started Obtiva's Software Studio at the beginning of 2007, I had a lot to learn. A lot. I had focused a lot of my learning prior to 2005 on Extreme Programming, Java, Design Patterns, and Object-Oriented Design. In 2005 I made a decision to put my writing about my apprenticeship experiences on hold and take advantage of the opportunities that Ajax and Rails presented. This led me to leave ThoughtWorks and join Obtiva in 2006, and start our Studio the following year. Starting the Studio meant I had to step outside my cozy world of objects, patterns, and process and into the messier, and unfamiliar world of SQL, web servers, CSS, performance tuning, and system administration. I also had to step outside my cozy world of corporate consulting where missed estimates meant little more than some slight disappointment to a middle manager and into a world where missed estimates meant serious problems for a small business owner. There is no better testing ground for your devleopment ideals than having to justify them to a small business owner whose livlihood is depending on your delivery expertise.

I've written a bit about this before, but I had lunch on Friday with Jay Fields and he was talking about learning the financial domain for his first post-ThoughtWorks gig. He said he was enjoying it but pointed out that it wasn't something that would be directly beneficial to him since he wasn't ever planning on being a trader. Thinking about this on the way back to the Studio, it drove home the power that a generalist possesses. Since I have Software Craftsmanship on the brain, it reminded me of a quote from McBreen's book:

"The step from apprentice to journeyman is very significant and represents the coming of age of the developer. It is a public recognition that the developer is a skilled generalist, able to undertake application development projects without assistance."

Without assistance. While there are countless things that I appreciate about Obtiva's Software Studio, one of the most valuable assets I have developed there is my ability to undertake application development projects without assistance. Not that I have actually developed anything in the Studio without assistance. We are a team, and the Studio was started with apprenticeship in mind, so we strive to pair program and collaborate every day. But when I have a few days or nights to myself, perhaps a long plane ride, or a long weekend, I have the opportunity to quickly turn ideas into a reality. While there is nothing sexy about deployment scripts or web server configuration, the power of the knowledge to develop and deploy software without assistance is literally priceless.