Software Process Improvement Network
(A-SPIN)
Evolution of the Developer Role, by Gary Cernosek, Market Manager, Rational Software, IBM Software Group
Overview:
When someone speaks of “the developer,” what comes to mind? Many say that developers are responsible for creating the actual code of a software application. Others generalize the notion to that of any practitioner involved in the software development process. Throw in the changing and ever-growing complexity in programming languages, operating platforms, and development paradigms and you get a lot of ambiguity.
This paper takes a fresh look at the developer role in the context of a number of trends taking place in the software industry. We first survey the types of practitioners involved in the business of creating software applications. We then focus on the role of the mainstream developer and how that role is evolving to that of a software “architect” – a role that is distinct, yet is a natural extension from what all developers do and care about. We’ll lay out a spectrum of development paradigms, each of which addresses software at progressively higher levels of abstraction. We’ll then propose which paradigms map best to short list of role definitions. Our goals are to clarify ambiguity inherent to role terminology and to begin understanding the implications resulting from this evolution.
This presentation will be of direct interest to software developers and software architects, helping them assess their skills and paving a roadmap to the future. It will be of interest to software project managers in the sense of how they might choose to organize their development teams and with what types of tools to equip them.
About the Speakers:
Gary Cernosek is currently a Market Manager in the Rational software division of IBM Software Group where he is responsible for analyzing and responding to market trends taking place in software development. His focus is on software design and construction technology, particularly in the areas of visual modeling and model-driven development. Gary previously held positions in Rational software sales, field technical training, and consulting. His actual software development experience stems from over 8 years working in the NASA community on Space Shuttle and Space Station systems. Gary received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and his M.S. in Computer System Design from the University of Houston at Clear Lake where he concentrated on object-oriented software engineering.
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