Anyone, and I really mean anyone with a few basic character traits can be a software developer, but before the characteristics, requirements and desired qualification of a software developer profile are laid out an important difference needs to be clarified.
A lot of people use the terms “software developer” and “software programmer” synonymously, but there is a huge difference between the two.
A software developer is someone who is responsible for understanding the functional requirements of a client, converting them into facts, which can be understood and converted to working codes, managing the project over its life cycle, testing the program to find errors and checking if its functionality is as per the requirement document, delivering the application to the client, installing the application at the client’s end and training the client or the users on the working of the application. They are often assisted by senior programmers throughout the software project life cycle.
A programmer just writes programs which are software codes where as a developer is involved in various other stages of the project life cycle like product definition, requirement analysis, gap analysis, feasibility analysis, testing, implementation, maintenance. An important part of a developer’s job is coordination between production and the team members.
A person need not be a technical expert in computer programming to excel as a software developer.
A software developer’s profile involves varied tasks which are more function oriented. A software developer should have the knowledge of the various software development life cycles so that they can implement them effectively.
A software developer should be a team player. He should be able to work efficiently in a team and should also have team management skills to organize and drive the team to work towards achieving a common goal and delivering a quality product.
A few personal characteristics that a software developer should have are - they should be organized but accommodating, have strong interpersonal skills, have high tolerance power, have good communication skills, be thorough and precise in his work and should be able to pay attention to detail.
Minimum qualification required to become a software developer is a graduate degree. It is beneficial for people who are involved throughout the life of the project in more complicated and decision making tasks to have a degree in computer science so as to better understand the complexities of the work in hand.
A post graduate degree ensures promotions to higher levels of profiles like management and business development.
There are various online courses which help a person understand the intricacies of what the job expectation are and acquire sufficient knowledge to become a software developer. Along with the courses a lot of books and eBooks are available on the subject to help anyone interested to know about software development and how to become a software developer without proper formal training. It is not difficult to learn anything or get a dream profile; one must just be dedicated and should work with a focus on achieving the goal.
Software development life cycle is a very complicated process that requires use of sophisticated techniques from every sphere of knowledge from computer science to engineering and digital asset administration. It is highly useful for developing important application software for the company and a plethora of other useful utilities. SDLC is a very crucial process that enables a useful running of the data processing applications. There are two kinds of software that can be developed with the help of this procedure; application software and system software. The former software refers to all the simple software that assists in the proper execution of a company’s daily tasks. Examples of such software are spreadsheets and word editing software. The system software refers to the core operating software of an organization.
SDLC involves a large number of stages from system analysis to system design and maintenance to final system testing. A feasibility study is a very significant part of the system analysis where the developers can actually carry a probability study of the project, whether its development would be profitable for the organization or not. System analysis is a very important stage of this whole process because it identifies the most crucial needs of the organization upon which the whole structure of the system would be based. It means an understanding of all the tasks that the created software is supposed to perform, hence the data needed by it and the resultant output.
The main objective of the system analysis is to give you a clear-cut idea about what are the needs of software. For carrying out this stage, it becomes important to gather all the information about the current system and it’s designing. This way a developer can get to know what will be the technical specifications of the new system required for an easy execution of the operations.
Design is the next stage in the process where the developer is supposed to execute the process of creating a system according to its objectives. SDLC is an advanced and complex process that requires a sequence of processes, making use of information systems to yield software that are perfect for the organization. This process is largely used to build software, which can be used for processes like payroll, word processing, inventory control and production management.
Software development involves another stage of designing the programs and coding and decoding them. In a smaller project, it is very easy for the developers to write down the program. They just have to write down the codes and then test those codes and the software can be implemented. But, in larger projects it is not that simple. There has to be a certain amount of synchronization between the developers to see that they are able to generate similar kinds of codes. Testing is very important for any software to succeed because it means, checking out its quality. It involves bugging and debugging the program. Without an adequate amount of testing, software would not be free from any bugs and would be of inferior quality.
System maintenance is the last stage of the process where the developer has to make sure that they are able to provide the company with regular support and updation of the software as and when required.
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