A software developer is a person who oversees the entire process of software development, from the conceptualization of the design up to the maintenance and future enhancement of the source code. Developers can be involved in a much wider aspect of software designing, other than just the coding and development. However, they are still guided by lead software programmers during the process of software designing and development.
In essence, software developers are the people who are tasked to create a standalone software that involves more than just simple programming, which are also expected to get involved in the entire phase of development (both in design and code). Legendary software developers like Peter Norton (Norton Utilities) and Philippe Khan (Borland Key) started out as small-team developers before they reach fame.
Some o f the important job aspects of a software developer include the following:
- Software design (the idea behind this is similar with database design wherein the architectural structure of the software program is created after being conceptualized)
- Actual core implementation (the crucial stage of developing the software)
- Requirement analysis and specifications
- Refining throw away prototypes to confirm software requirements
- Authoring software documentation
- Participating in software release as well as post release activities (testing and gathering feedbacks from pre-released testers)
- Implementation of software maintenance and enhancement