The study and application of engineering to the creation, design, development, support, and retirement of software is known as software engineering. Software engineering covers a wide range of topics and performs numerous tasks over the course of an application's lifecycle. Software engineers must be knowledgeable about best practices in software engineering, disciplined, and aware of how your business generates software, the functions it will do, and how it will be maintained.
Software engineering is entering a new era as CIOs and digital leaders increasingly recognize its significance and the potential effects it can have on your bottom line, both positive and negative.
It is important for vendors, IT workers, and even departments outside of IT to be aware that software engineering is having an increasingly large impact on practically every area of your day-to-day operations.
The Importance of Software Engineers
Software engineers of all kinds, full-time staff, vendors, contracted workers, or part-time workers, are important members of the IT community.
What do software engineers do? Software engineers apply the principles of software engineering to the design, development, maintenance, testing, and evaluation of software. There is much discussion about the degree of education and or certification that should be required for software engineers.
According to StackOverflow Survey 2018, software engineers are lifelong learners; almost 90% of all developers say they have taught themselves a new language, framework, or tool outside of their formal education.
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/
Software engineers are well versed in the software development process, though they typically need input from IT leader regarding software requirements and what the end result needs to be. Regardless of formal education, all software engineers should work within a specific set of best practices for software engineering so that others can do some of this work at the same time.
Software engineering almost always includes a vast amount of teamwork. Designers, writers, coders, testers, various team members, and the entire IT team need to understand the code.
Software engineers should understand how to work with several common computer languages, including Visual Basic, Python, Java, C, and C++. According to Stackoverflow, for the sixth year in a row, JavaScript is the most commonly used programming language. Python has risen in the ranks, surpassing C# this year, much like it surpassed PHP last year. Python has a solid claim to being the fastest-growing major programming language.
https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2018/
Software engineering is important because specific software is needed in almost every industry, in every business, and for every function. It becomes more important as time goes on – if something breaks within your application portfolio, a quick, efficient, and effective fix needs to happen as soon as possible.
Whatever you need software engineering to do – it is something that is vitally important and that importance just keeps growing. When you work with software engineers, you need to have a check and balance system to see if they are living up to their requirements and meeting KPIs.
Software Engineering Code of Ethics
The Software Engineering Code of Ethics focuses on providing high-quality software. They are committed to analyzing, specifying, designing, developing, testing, and maintaining software that is beneficial and effective for the company or client.
According to the Association for Computer Machinery, the Software Engineering Code of Ethics is as follows:
1. PUBLIC - Software engineers shall act consistently with the public interest.
2. CLIENT AND EMPLOYER - Software engineers shall act in a manner that is in the best interests of their client and employer consistent with the public interest.
3. PRODUCT - Software engineers shall ensure that their products and related modifications meet the highest professional standards possible.
4. JUDGMENT - Software engineers shall maintain integrity and independence in their professional judgment.
5. MANAGEMENT - Software engineering managers and leaders shall subscribe to and promote an ethical approach to the management of software development and maintenance.
6. PROFESSION - Software engineers shall advance the integrity and reputation of the profession consistent with the public interest.
7. COLLEAGUES - Software engineers shall be fair to and supportive of their colleagues.
8. SELF - Software engineers shall participate in lifelong learning regarding the practice of their profession and shall promote an ethical approach to the practice of the profession.
Future of Software Engineering
Software engineers are important and really the main importance of software engineering is that the build something that wasn’t there before. This is a unique field because they walk the fine line between creative and scientific. They need to be able to visualize the product and then create it. How you approach software engineering is an important part of how your engineers will work – do you want to develop software for the needs of the users? Do you want to develop software that runs devices and controls your networks? Do you want software that does a combination of the two?
Into the future, there may be even more options and those that invest in software engineering now will reap the benefits for years to come.
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