Software Artist

Indeed [Chris said that the Sowftware Artist is *not* a metaphor] . Metaphor (in this context) is a conceptual tool to trigger creativity through unexpected relations between apparently different subjects. It is used both in software world and in traditionally pure arts world.
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[Shrini asked about performance vs. productivity]
Both terms go with both. I will try to give counter examples:

-On musical creation, we talk a lot about productivity. For example, you have modern jazz artist Anthony Braxton who releases dozens of albums a year. In classical music you have famous people who were extremely *productive*, despite living only 30 years, and other that compose very few pieces, but got famous anyway.
I remember earing this kind of conversations back when I studied in the conservatory of music.

The value of productivity is arguable, some may do more with less. This is true for software world and for arts. Of course when we talk purely about money, we always want "more" (and that is also true for both worlds.)

-When designing a piece of software, sometimes there are problems, like a feature we don't know exactly how to implement. On my company, there is a guy which is known for always finding great solutions. He is known for his *creativity* in working around hard problems.

Maybe there is a problem with the words. In a previous post Chris suggests using "create" instead of "write" or "code", or "build". This seems a great idea.

.....
Sorry I used "creativity" on my previous post instead of "performance", but the reasoning is still simple.
Word performance is used in engineering fields very often: note how it was used in marketing language for describing new car models ("modelxxx has a great performance off-road") so that people get a fast intuitive idea of an overall caracteristic of that vehicle.

We could equally say "John has a great performance as an exploratory tester", or "the new kernel has a great performace on that scenario"

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Michael Bolton describes metaphor even better than I do:
Actually, "is like" denotes simile, not metaphor. What you'resaying--something like "software IS art" is metaphor, quite distinct from"software IS LIKE art".

>I thoroughly do not intend for The Software Artists to be interpreted as anunsupported metaphor.

That's too bad, because metaphors rule. In addition, metaphors don'trequire support or references or citations. Metaphors are models that (aslong as we're paying attention and participating in the exercise) highlightboth the similarities and the differences. Metaphors get their powerprincipally from the cognitive friction that gets generated from equating(not merely comparing) something with something else that is manifestlydifferent AND manifestly the same.
---Michael B.