Programmer vs Software Developer. What is the Difference?

Some of the job roles in IT are so interlinked that it becomes difficult to segregate them often. The role of a Programmer and a Software Developer fall in that category. Many of the smaller organizations have started to use the term Programmer and Software Developer interchangeably, due to which a big confusion has engulfed the people regarding the roles of a Software Developer and a Programmer and often a novice commit the mistake of taking both the job roles same, which is perfectly not the case. In this article we will try to clear this big confusion and will take you in depth of the responsibilities handled by both and the differences the two of the roles carry. We will discuss in detail:

Who is a Programmer?
Who is a Software Developer?
What is the difference between a Software Developer and a Programmer?

Who is a Programmer?

If you want to understand the role of a Programmer, think of a person who is excellent in one particular thing, like the hard core one, who does one particular thing but is limited over that field only. A Programmer is exactly like that. Having an excellent skills in Programming languages, a Programmer is that incredible member of the Software development team who is skilled into finding solutions and execute them with his excellent codes.A Programmer has in-depth knowledge of the various programming languages which are required by his role in the organization and is considered as an expert in creating the software.

A Programmer writes computer program and helps the software development team in the starting phase of creating the software. Whether its Python, Scala or Java, a Programmer has an excellent skill of writing huge programs for the computer software.

Problem solving is one particular skill of a Programmer in which he is very good into. He knows how to solve the complex problems with his codes and writes accurate and error free code for the software. Without him it is actually difficult to imagine the development of the software. He is like the founding block of the software development process.

Who is a Software Developer?

Think of a Project Manager while understanding the role of a Software Developer. Like a Project Manager handles the entire project efficiently, a Software developer is involved in the entire handling of the software development process.

Lets understand what is a Software Development is.

A Software development is a complete process of conceiving the idea of the required software to finally designing the software as per the requirement of the client. The liasoning, the documentation, testing checking for errors and everything that is involved in the entire creation of a software well fit for the client comes under the software development process.

A Software Developer manages all these responsibilities. He is the one who manages the complete Software development process and designs the software as per the requirement of his client. No error can be taken for granted while preparing a software ready to be used, so in case of bugs also, a Software developer keeps checks on the bugs and resolves the various issue present in the software. You can take a Software manager like a leader who is taking care of all the things.

What is the difference between a Software Developer and a Programmer?

Understanding from the job roles of a Software Developer and a Programmer, the responsibilities are quite evident now that while a Programmer is focused on writing programs only, a Software Developer is focused on the complete development process.

To better understand the difference between the two terms, you can also take a Programmer as the subset of Software Developer where a Software developer can also do computer programming apart from managing the entire process of conceiving, designing, programming, documentation, testing and fixing bugs while a programmer is only focused on doing one particular tasks and does not handle the development process.

A software developer can also become a programmer in some small organizations but working as a developer in handling all the tasks in the software development process is something which is out of the scope of a Programmer.

I hope the above article helped you in clearing the confusion between a Software Developer and a Programmer and you understand the roles before applying to your next IT role. All the Best for your future endeavour!

Source: HOB

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