A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding the Role of a Software Engineer

Believe it or not, it's entirely possible to build a $350 million tech company without the proper technical training in software. Because so many software engineers are self-taught, there are millions of ways to approach that work that they do. If you don't understand the role of a software engineer, you won't know whether you need to hire one or not.Here are the three main things that software engineers do at any company.

1. They Plan Out The Scope

When you hire software engineers, you're hiring people who know how to put together a software project from start to finish. While they might not know the exact details of coding every part of the project, they know how to set up the flow of information.A software engineer can tell you if your dream project is possible or won't happen under current conditions. They can tell you how long a project will take, how many people you'll need, and how much it'll cost.They're valuable because they understand how to scale a project up or down. Software engineers learn quickly how much they can code in a day and how long it takes to revise a simple project. Ask your software engineers how long a project will take instead of telling them how fast they need to work.

2. They Fix Your Bugs

Software engineers can be brought into projects at any step of their production. Because of the common set of tools and languages they all rely on, they can look at someone else's code and help you figure out what's wrong.Writing code is less like surgery and more like practicing law. There are thousands of rules and clauses that can have one quickly visible positive impact but without looking at the entire system, can cause problems elsewhere.When this happens, software engineers are still your best bet for fixing those problems. They can track down and squash bugs like no one else can.

3. They Have Their Own Specialties

Every software engineer has their own specialty and their own style. In a way, they're a lot like artists. However, for best results and the biggest impact, they must follow rules.Software engineers follow a common set of rules for marking and notating code as they go along. This helps the next person who sees the code understand how and why it's put together the way it is.Because everyone's brain works differently, some people see a solution to a problem as A to B then skipping ahead to D. Other developers will see why this works but may find that by skipping C, they create a security flaw. Software engineers are the best at editing code as well as creating it.

The Work Of a Software Engineer Can Change

Over time, the same software engineer might move from working on building a database to designing interfaces. Depending on the kinds of code they know how to write, they may handle different aspects of the projects at your company.If you want to learn more about the role of software engineers at your company, contact us today.