I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:
I will respect the hard-won technological and engineering gains of those software engineers in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine, with those who are to follow.
I will apply, for the benefit of all users, all measures that are required, avoiding those twin traps of over-engineering and corner-cutting.
I will remember that there is art to software engineering as well as science, and that good documentation, simple design may outweigh the architect’s itch for complexity and the developer’s endless pursuit for new and shiny.
I will not be ashamed to say “I know not”, nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a pragmatic, maintainable solution.
I will respect the privacy of my users, for their data and behaviour patterns are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. If it is given me to improve a life with my code, all thanks. But it may also be within my power to take a life, or cause hardship, be that emotional, mental or physical; this awesome responsibility must be faced with great humbleness and awareness of my own limitation as an engineer and the capabilities of the tools I use and the code that I write. Above all, I must not play at God.
I will remember that I do not write code just for fun, for business success, but for humans, users, whose life, wellbeing, life-choices and daily routine may be affected by my engineering decisions. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to write truly useful software.
I will prevent outages and bugs whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to debugging and damage control.
I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.
If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and be remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of writing software that makes the world a better place one line of code at a time.