As a IT professional, I’ve often found myself at a loss when I’ve had to explain my job concisely. Usually following the informal pleasantries, including hellos, name exchanges and handshakes is the dreaded “So, what do you do?”
Um’ I’m an IT professional.
Okay, but what do you do?
I um.. develop software.
Develop software?
Well.. I do requirements analysis, design, architect, develop, document, test and deploy software applications based on customer needs, while working with various vendors and integrating with other applications and co-ordinating activities with offshore team members.
Huh?
I write code.
oh!
By this time, the pleasantries have ceased to be that, and the other person either looks at you and your family pitifully or warily.
The truth is that the software developer of today is expected to perform all these roles. Internet.com, has tried to break down the software development roles as they exist today.
Software development, the paper observes, is done differently at every organization, and recognizes that the process that one organization or person uses to develop software may not work perfectly in all circumstances.
While environments will change and with that the process that are being adhered would be adapted either marginally or dramatically.. however the multiple and multi-faceted practitioners of the fine art of software engineering remain largely the same – for the requirements are the same – There will always be a need to understand the business problem, convert that problem into an architecture, convert the architecture into a solution, test the solution, and deploy the solution. Although each of these processes may change to some extent based on the programming models and tools being used, fundamentally there are some roles, which every process has in one form or another.
One person may be filling all the roles or a handful of the roles, or one very specific role. Despite
this there is a need for all of the roles — each serves a purpose.
From Subject Matter Experts, Functional Analysts, Solutions Architect, Development Lead,
Developer, Quality Assurance, Deployment (Deploy), Training, Project Manager, to the Development Manager, each role has a set of critical skills required.
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