Software developer

A software developer is a person that creates and programs software, either professionally or as a hobby. Software developers might develop software alone, with other people, or at a company.

Software development often means more than just designing or writing software, and includes the whole process of creating software, including programming, testing, and managing the software project.

Most software developers are still led by a lead developer (a software engineer that guides the project).

A programmer generally only does computer programming,^[1] but a software developer usually will also, in addition to programming and compiling computer programs:

Work out the requirements to use the software
Design the general structure and flow of the software
Develop prototypes
Perform software testing, or get ideas from testers they select before the software is released
Create smaller samples of larger pieces of software (commonly called "demos")
Release updates and patches for the software.

Sometimes software developers are also responsible for the budget and finances of the software project, although this is increasingly rare and is usually done by people in project management roles.

A software development company is a company that develops, produces, and releases software, and employs software developers. Many software development companies exist, all over the world. One need not work for a software development company to be a software developer.

References

↑ Eric Sink. "Small ISVs: You need Developers, not Programmers". Retrieved 2008-11-29. A programmer is someone who does nothing but code new features and (if you're lucky) fix bugs. They don't write specs. They don't write automated test cases. They don't help keep the automated build system up to date. They don't help customers work out tough problems. They don't help write documentation. They don't help with testing. They don't even read code. All they do is write new code.
↑ Tim Chen. "Introduction to Testing at Microsoft" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-11-29.

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[Sourcegear_2005-1] Eric Sink. "Small ISVs: You need Developers, not Programmers". Retrieved 2008-11-29. A programmer is someone who does nothing but code new features and (if you're lucky) fix bugs. They don't write specs. They don't write automated test cases. They don't help keep the automated build system up to date. They don't help customers work out tough problems. They don't help write documentation. They don't help with testing. They don't even read code. All they do is write new code.

[Microsoft-2] Tim Chen. "Introduction to Testing at Microsoft" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-11-29.

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