Software Developer
Career information and advice on being a Software Developer

Software Developers design the computer programs that run on computers, in machinery, in cars or even in gaming consoles. For example Microsoft Word would be designed and built by a team of Software Developers and Software Engineers.

The software that is designed and built could be as complex as a high-end graphics program like Photoshop, or a small application that enables a printer to ‘talk’ to a computer. A Software Developer could be tasked to design software that enables a computer to control industrial machinery, the architecture for a financial database and reporting system or even software found inside a PS3, which is known as embedded controls.

Software Developers would normally work with a Senior Programmer or Business Analyst who would give a breakdown of the clients’ requirements and draw up development plans. From the plans, software would be created to solve the client’s problems using a variety of development methods.

In order to design software that meets the client’s requirements a Software Developer would also work closely with Analysts, Designers and commercial staff. It is essential that Software Developers are able to use new web-based systems as well as traditional programming languages such as C++ and Visual Basic (VB).

Software Developer functions include

Once given a brief from a client or Senior Programmer, a Software Developer could solve a particular problem by utilising the Waterfall method. This involves programming a test version of the software and then checking installation and compatibility. Once this has filtered through the test results would be checked and any technical problems (bugs) would be fixed.

After this step has been successfully tested a full version of the software would then be installed. Final checks and problem solving would be performed before going ‘live’. Once the software has been checked and is live a Software Developer could play a support and maintenance role by supporting the system, adding new features or modifying the software as and where needed.

Technology is developing at a rapid rate and as such any software developed will at some point need to be upgraded to run on new hardware, operating systems, or just to keep pace with the technology that surrounds us. Under many circumstances modification of ‘off-the-shelf’ products may be required to fit an existing or new set up by modifying the programming source code.

A Software Developer is mainly responsible for the design of the class structure of a program, or it’s overall hierarchy, whereas a Software Engineer would then implement the actual code at code level to make this happen. Increasingly Software Developers are becoming Systems Architects, being responsible for the multi-platform and multi-levelled component interactions of a large software system.

In essence a Software Developer needs to manage a group of parts to ensure that the final product is coherent and achieves the desired outcomes. A Software Developer would participate in the product definition, define the market gap, be involved with the specifications of the final product as well as check cost and feasibility of the project as a whole.

They would then be involved in the design, coding, implementation, testing and authoring of manuals and other documentation required by end users to operate the program. In a big company or working on a large piece of software, there may be Software Developers who work on only a single part of the whole product, whilst still ensuring that the conditions above are met and adhered to.

Database Management and efficiency testing and authoring is a major part of this work and is known as Data-Warehousing.