Having the opportunity to do something for a living that you would willingly do for pleasure is the best indication that you have the ideal career. One of the most cherished accomplishments of my life to this point is having the opportunity to explore my logical and creative potential by designing and coding computer programs. An added bonus and privilege in my current position is that one of my primary responsibilities is to assist in the management of the environment in which I work. In my career I serve in two distinct roles; that of a software developer, responsible for designing and coding computer programs, and that of a software development manger, responsible for selecting teams, managing projects and establishing a productive environment for those individuals reporting to me.

The role of a software engineer is comprised of many things, but I will focus on five of the tasks that I feel are most important. These tasks include: (a) understanding the business case for the development, (b) the design and architecture of the system, (c) requirements and functional specification development, (d) writing and debugging the program, and (e) transitioning the

The final stage is to allow a team of test engineers to verify the quality of the program through both typical usage and negative testing. Negative testing is an overt attempt to cause the program to fail through malicious usage, using the application in ways that the developer may not have anticipated or providing input that exceeds stated capabilities. Although this is a necessary part of the process prior to the introduction of the software, this can be a time of frustration for the developer. Author Steve McConnell states, “The people who are the best at programming are the people who realize how small their brains are. They are humble.” (1993, p. 757). A high level of professionalism and personal humility can certainly be valuable traits for the developer when dealing with the findings of the test engineers in conjunction with fast approaching product shipment dates.

As complicated and process oriented as this may sound, I consider it a great privilege to be able to employ my personal abilities in logical thinking, my desire to be creative, and my desire to share my creations with other people in the course of my everyday work. I feel extremely fortunate that when I get up in the morning, I am not simply preparing to put in my time at the office, but I am preparing for the daily opportunity to do the type of work I love. The added bonus of working with intelligent individuals who share my interests is a benefit that I hope never to lose as I continue along my career path.

Maintaining a balance between the time to market criteria of the project, the features and functionality and the expected quality level of the application becomes critical during the latter stages of the development process. Most developers have a natural desire to add features and functionality that are of interest to them personally and to attempt to perfect their code. Spending an excessive amount of time ensuring that the style, structure and content of a program are perfect can be extremely costly to a project. Perhaps the most difficult concept to convey to the development and quality teams is the concept that great is the enemy of good. This concept is certainly counter-intuitive to developers who are heavily invested in their creation, as well as to the test engineers who consider the product ready to release only when all issues are resolved and no further issues have arisen. The requirement to deliver the product at a predetermined time demands that the teams find a balance between perfection and an acceptable quality level. The teams must be constantly mindful of the need for this balance during the latter stages of the development cycle.

Although less experienced software engineers often skip this step, and many experienced engineers as well, it is extremely important that the developer establish a clear understanding of the business case. Only through a clear and concise understanding of the factors that initiated the development, the identification of the experience level of the intended end-user and the environment i

Some topics in this essay:
Steve McConnell, Teacher Date, John Robbins, development process, software development, features functionality, functional specification, development cycle, technical skills, test engineers, coding computer programs, software development manager, software developer, designing coding computer, typical usage, negative testing, latter stages development,