In your opinion and experience, what is the difference between Software Development and Software Engineering?
And does it matter?
3 Likes
As I also posted on the MoT LinkedIn Community:
The way Dave Farley talks about Software Engineering rings very close to what I would call Quality Engineering, the practice not the role. And I’m all here for it.
I paraphrase “I Dev may stop when the code is written as requested, the Engineer understands the problem to solve, and predicts the impact and what might go wrong”. Of course, I know plenty of Devs who practice Quality Software Engineering.
I really enjoyed this video, what do you think?
YouTube Video:
LinkedIn Post:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:groupPost:25412-7155239532374736896/
1 Like
The terms are often used interchangeably, but Software Development may emphasize creative coding, while Software Engineering involves a broader, structured approach covering the entire development life cycle. In practice, the distinction may not matter much, as the focus should be on delivering quality software regardless of the terminology used.
5 Likes
That would be my general definition too.
3 Likes
They are one and the same thing. I guess sometimes people try to manufacture a difference for polemical purposes.
3 Likes
Polemic . It has ever been that words are what we make them to be, words are a lot like colours, a shared interpretation of state. So just comparing two words and even unpacking them in ways that do not try to drive people to our personal interpretation, but rather toward the shared interpretation.
- Engineer, implies someone who looks at the life-cycle, not just the manufacture
3 Likes
This feels like the absolute key issue, and all team security models I’ve seen ultimately come down to this. Regardless of roles, it’s that investment in paying attention to the life-cycle, that is important.
1 Like
Roughly speaking, to me an engineer is someone who works on creating new tools, frameworks, engines, libraries, etc. and the developer is someone who’s using such tools, along with custom high-level code, mostly to make commercial products for end users.
1 Like
