No point in writing something on the theme of the week when something amazing has already been written: http://humanedevelopment.org/
If you don’t want to click through to read the whole thing (although you really should, it’s good stuff), here’s a taste:
We are humans
working with humans
to develop software
for the benefit of humans.
In other words, software engineering organizations cannot hope to sustain meaningful progress at the expense of the humans who make up the organization; the ends must not be used to justify the means. Software can and should be created with a minimum of pain.
According to Ernie Miller, humane development is focused on four tenets: empathy, honesty, trust, autonomy.
This week (month, year), so are we.