Principles

The pursuit of writing clean, reliable code has long engaged developers’ attention. However, this focus wasn’t always present in the field. In the early days of software development, programs were typically specialized tools created largely by individual programmers. By the 1960s and 1970s—a period now known as the Software Crisis—the industry underwent significant change, and demand to build bigger, more complex systems was present. Engineers struggled to build these applications using outdated techniques and processes. Consequently, projects frequently exceeded budgets and failed to meet deadlines. To effectively utilize increasingly powerful machines for business-critical software, a fundamental shift was necessary.