Getting Agile

What is the role of the “bit flipper” nowadays? We all have friends who seem to be the best programmer you have ever seen. You may even be that person who everybody says is a great programmer. It‘s the programmer who can come up with elegant algorithms to solve any issue. Squeezes out the most performance possible from their system functions. Actually attempts to win encryption breaking contests. With the recent updates in software development which have paved our way toward systems integration and further away from the actual bits, does a “bit flipper“ stand a chance?

I have a theory that “bit flipper” types have an enormous chance to become quite valuable to these recent software development practices. I think the key is in automated testing and especially test-driven development. I believe this may be the last frontier for manipulating bits and solving interesting algorithms. In the world of systems integration we tend to work on business level objectives and logic. In the testing of these systems there still is a need for creative thinking and extremely performant harnasses.

What do other people think about the role of the “bit flipper”?