What Does a software engineer do?

Answer 1

A software engineer is a person who builds or designs software.

A software engineer must, of course, be a good programmer, be well versed in data structures and algorithms, and be fluent in one or more programming languages.

Answer 2

A Software Engineer does many things (I know as I was one for 14 years and before that worked with them as a Hardware Technician for 16 years). The main thing that a Software Engineer does is writing documentation for other Engineers and for delivery to the Customer, to describe the software design and explain how the software is installed and used, etc. Roughly at least 2/3s of a Software Engineer's time is spent on that, so writing skills are a very high priority.

Other things a Software Engineer does are:

• present his designs in customer reviews, so public speaking skills are also a high priority
• attend peer reviews, both to present/defend his designs and to critique other's designs
• requirements allocation, derivation, and tracing
• prototyping code to verify possible design options and their practicality
• writing test cases and test procedures
• preliminary design
• detailed design
• writing code
• testing code against the test cases
• fixing code that failed the test cases and updating all documents as needed to match
• keep up with Customer requested requirements changes and updating all documents, test cases, designs, and code as needed
• integrating his code into the system
• repeat anything and everything already completed as needed
• collaborate with Systems Engineers
• collaborate with Hardware Engineers
• support Marketing when needed
• support Manufacturing when needed
• support Test Floor when needed
• get 80 to 100 hours of work done in a week for 40 hours of salary (in many cases)
• somehow find a few minutes here and there to eat and sleep
• forget having much of any life outside work, except when you can take a week or two of vacation
• etc.

Actually I generally enjoyed doing it. For me it was practically the kind of job that I would be willing to pay to do, but they payed me to do it instead.

Answer 3

To understand what is needed (define requirements) To write down and agree what is needed (capture requirements) To design the overall scheme of the software (define the architecture) To design each module (module design) To implement each module ( write the software using an appropriate programming language) To test bits of the new software (debugging) To test each module (unit test) To test groups of modules (integration testing) To test against the requirements (verification) To check the product does what the customer wanted (validation) There are other aspects such as: Understanding the constraints of the host system Understand risks in development Communication with stake holders Deal with change requests Consideration of reuse ability Industry standards Acceptable practises

Answer 4

Every business that generates its own computer programs or needs to personalize third-party software needs software engineers to write, edit and test programs. This is what Software developers do. I even hired Software engineer for my online portal, Dmitry Khodarenok. He creates unique resources for small and large companies. While coordinate with him regrading the project, I cam to know that the responsibility of software engineer can only handle by themselves.

Answer 5

• requirements analysis, allocation, derivation, and tracking
• software prototyping
• document preparation and updating
• preliminary design
• test case definition, procedures, and design
• detailed design
• preparation for, presentation at, and attending peer reviews
• preparation for, presentation at, and attending customer reviews
• writing code conforming to project and company coding standards
• notification of software quality engineers prior to running any test cases
• running test cases with software quality engineer observing
• for any failed test cases updating preliminary design, detailed design, documentation, then finally code (do not deviate from this order or costly mistakes will be made)
• when fixes are incorporated re-notify software quality engineers and rerun ALL test cases with software quality engineer observing, until no more failures occur
• work with other software engineers and systems engineers to integrate software into system and perform software acceptance test with both company and customer software quality engineers observing
• updating requirements, documentation, design, test cases, code, rerun ALL test cases, etc. anytime the customer makes requirements changes
• etc.

Answer 6

Software engineering provides methods to handle complexities in any software system.

It is an quantifiable approach to develop, operate and maintain software.

Answer 7

Eat burgers