In case the Software Gardening Manifesto is down or otherwise not available, here is a copy of it …

SOFTWARE GARDENING MANIFESTO

Software Gardeners are professionals who perceive software development in a different way. Our goal is to spread the word of our core values, be mentors for the new developers and create software that it is developed at the highest quality bar.

Every software gardener believes and embraces the following:

• We treat software systems as gardens and code as flowers. Although we don’t disagree regarding software as a “craft”, we believe that software is a living and breathing “being”, not just an object, created using the best materials.

• We constantly mentor young developers and we share our knowledge at every opportunity. Junior developers are like flowers that need to be irrigated to blossom. We are the water, the sun, the oil, the fertilizer for every (young) software professional.

• Software development is a lot more than slinging code. We know the practices and we apply them effectively. We make use of the most productive tools and our skill-set includes both soft and technical skills. We also understand that our overall attitude is what defines us as software gardeners.

• We care about our code and this care, we show it continuously, day by day, every moment in every single line of code we we write.

• We are not only able to respond to change but we are prepared about the endless - internal and external - environment reform.

• We treat customers as the people who will walk in our garden and smell our fragrant flowers. Having said that we engage them from the first day, to make sure that all their needs, requirements and expectations will be met.