Creativity in Software Development

I shared yesterday’s post with some friends, who were keen to explore what we mean when we talk about creativity in software development.

Alastair made an interesting comment:

…it made me reconsider software dev as a creative endeavour, but I think I came to the conclusion that it is. For me, I think there is a gap between a creative art like writing, especially one which has an expressive mirror like acting, and a purely creative activity like, e.g., whittling a stick or constructing a building.

I think there is value in disentangling our concepts of creativity, and I find Alastair’s distinction between the creative arts and simpler forms of creation very useful.

There’s also an ambiguity in the word ‘create’, as it can refer simply to making things, as well as to the creative endeavours we would like to characterise.

So rather than ask ‘Is software development a creative activity?’, I tend to consider a narrower question: ‘Is there a place for creative thinking in software development?’

As the most basic level, I see creative thinking as making new links between concepts. Once you have made the link, you can engage other thought processes, for example deductive thinking, to explore the consequences and implications of that link.

But because the link isn’t already there, you can’t find it by rational thought; you need a leap of imagination to reach it.

There are some sorts of problem that I can tackle best once I’ve slept. On a few lucky occasions I’ve been able to take an afternoon nap, and woken up with a new idea to investigate, but this usually means taking the idea home with me and letting it brew overnight.

Here are a few examples of problems in software development that can be tackled with creative thinking:

• How should we name this element?
• What is the appropriate metaphor for this system?
• Has a similar problem already been solved? Is there a pattern we can apply here?
• What test should we write first? What test should we write next?
• What is the best way to split this system into smaller parts?

And of course, because software development in an organisation is a social activity, the need for creative thinking extends far beyond the design of the software.