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What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sat Jul 12, 2008 7:58 pm
by alex.barylski
If other, what would you call yourself, if given the option to do so...

Actually it would be really neat to if you listed your details in a reply in point form so I can get an idea as to what responsiblities you consider your domain.

Cheers :)

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:11 am
by vargadanis
I have no idea... Seriously... I work on my own, there is noone else in the Co. besides me. So there is not much point in calling myself a senior or junior developer. I ticked other.

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:31 am
by onion2k
I consider myself to be a senior developer, but really my job is more akin to a software architect/project manager I guess. My job title is "Head of Production".

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:07 am
by vargadanis
Maybe we should clear things up a little bit by defining what are the responsibilies of each we can vote on. For non-us/uk peeps it might not be that obvious.

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 2:45 pm
by Eran
I voted software architect.

I currently act as the CTO and head of development at a small Internet startup. As such, I design the system, choose the technologies and spearhead the implementation. Some of my duties are to constantly adapt the design to the changing specifications (which are a natural part of any lengthy software process) and to make sure everything integrates nicely.

By the way, from personal experience project manager isn't really a technical position (though it might be occupied by a technical person).

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:04 pm
by alex.barylski
By the way, from personal experience project manager isn't really a technical position (though it might be occupied by a technical person).
I agree. I have a friend who took a few programmer analyst course in college who went on to become project manager and he does very little technical work, if any. Mostly just making sure milestones/deadlines are met.

Software architects wouldn't likely be as technical as a senior developer either, though. I would expect very little mucking around with server configurations, or even implementations, writing unit tests, etc. Mostly just dealing with refactorings (determine how to best achieve a result -- not actually having to actually carry that task out), determining best practices, focusing more on the framework and interfaces than the code base.

Senior developers I would say are anyone with a few years experience (5+ years in the same company) who are thouroughly familiar with the codebase, quirks and caveats. They lead junior developers as subordinates and report to project managers but more likely architects.

Junior developers are code monkeys. They do little but write code and complete tests. They are not responsible for API's or anything they just code to an interface focusing purely on implementation which might then be reviewed by senior developer to ensure conventions, standards and security requirements are met.

Project managers speak to upper management and relay messages back and forth between architects/senior developers.

If marketing steps in and requests a new feature, the architet would assess the request, and approve or disprove depending on time, budget, etc. The architect might then sit down with senior developer and ask for his estimate in time, possible ramifications, etc.

Togather they might decide whether the feature is possible or not.

I would personally organize a company this way:

- 1 or 2 architects
- 2 or 3 senior developers
- Any number of junior developers

Of course the above numbers will change depending on size of the project. I've personally managed a 80k line peice of software entirely myself. That is about as big as I would want to go as an individual. Any larger and things would have been really messy. If a project were larger, I would split it into two or more separate projects with their own architects, developers, etc. Maybe having one architect managing multiple junior architects.

I'd probably scrap the project manager unless the organization (not the project) was large enough to absolutely require one...if software architects were truely not business savvy enough to speak to those with vested interest in the project that is.

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Sun Jul 13, 2008 8:36 pm
by Eran
Software architects wouldn't likely be as technical as a senior developer either, though. I would expect very little mucking around with server configurations, or even implementations, writing unit tests, etc. Mostly just dealing with refactorings (determine how to best achieve a result -- not actually having to actually carry that task out), determining best practices, focusing more on the framework and interfaces than the code base.
I wouldn't say that ... every architect was once a senior developer and a code monkey before that. You gain practical experience before you start thinking more abstractly.

I liked this developer proficiency system from codding horror - http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000203.html

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 7:08 am
by vargadanis
Hockey, thanx for the info on what each of these do. I cannot change my vote now, but it is clear that I am a software architect. Pretty much do the same thing as pytrin.

off
Pytrin, grats on your nomination to become the fastest advancing nowcomer on the forums... :)
/off

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2008 12:43 pm
by meridianni
I'm a newb. :P I do everything from writing error checking scripts for 38000 lines of auto-generated HTML (true story) to sifting through database tables for extraneous entries that can't be purged automatically. But heck, at least it pays...

Re: What would you consider yourself

Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 11:47 am
by Maugrim_The_Reaper
Maybe I should apply to have my title updated to Software Architect? ;) Truth be told I'm primarily managing staff and very little day to day involvement in actual developing. Why do you think I'm so addictive to open source contributions? Needs to be a creative outlet or I'd go nuts.