The Road from Developer to Engineer
Posted on November 23, 2007
Filed Under chit chat, development | Leave a Comment
What are you then – a developer or an engineer? I think there is a difference the two, and not all developers want and/or make it to engineer.
A developer is someone who can write a piece of software, regardless of whether it works or not. That pretty much includes anyone who can (a) type (b) knows something about software development. If you wound back the clock, say ten years, I would add a few more things to the list like (c) knows what a compiler is (d) understands the fundamentals of hardware vs software (c) have used both dynamically and static typed languages. I understand that things have changed, and the technology focus has shifted somewhat. But let’s face it, anyone can loosely be labelled a developer these days.
For me, the term engineer conjures words such as empirical, experience, senior, discipline, team and end-to-end, which are properties I typically find lacking in developers. Now before I get flamed, that’s neither a bad thing nor a slap in the face to developers, but merely a clear indication for areas of improvement. I’m always looking for engineers but they are a rare breed. Why? Because, there is not short cut to becoming an engineer. You have to go the long way round! That takes time. However, engineers don’t go round saying that they are engineers. You just know when you’ve met one. No label is required. Moreover, engineers morph in project managers, dads, executives, business analysts, or all of the aforementioned at some point. So when you find a good software engineer, that is still praticising and part of the development team, make sure you get as much from them as possible.
So if there is a shortage of engineers, what do you do? You invest in potential. You invest in talented developers. And this is where the hard work begins. Growing engineers is damned hard. Basically, you’re dealing with talented developers that are probably better than you ever were at developing (way back when 
), although they are lacking in the other areas, they see development as the primary benchmark against which to measure ability. Now, ability is important, but if I had to chose between an average, seasoned, disciplined, developer and a highly talented, rookie, upstart to join my team, 9 times out of 10, i’d opt for the former. But that’s just me…
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