What is Software Development?
Software development is the process of conceiving, specifying, designing, programming, documenting, testing, and bug fixing involved in creating and maintaining applications, frameworks, or other software components. Which may include research, new development, prototyping, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products.
Wikipedia
Who is a Software Developer?
A software developer is a person concerned with facets of the software development process, including the research, design, programming, and testing of computer software.
Why Software Development?
So, let me tell you why I think a career in software development is great.
- Availability of Jobs: Software Development is in demand, yeah! more like it’s eating the world. Even though more programmers are emerging, the demand is still more than the supply.
- Creativity: You become creative, since you create new functionality that didn’t exist before, or thinking of ways to update an already existing system, you also become a problem solver, expressing your solutions in many ways, both structurally and in the details. since you create new functionality that didn’t exist before.
- Collaborative: Now who said you will have to just sit alone and code all day? well, that’s not true, software development most of the time is a collaborative effort, you get to discuss requirements, problems, and solutions with your team members and other stakeholders.
- Flexibility: Working anywhere at any time of the day.
- Pays Well: Developing a software has a lot of value, with no marginal cost for selling a copy of a software you’ve already developed.
Types of Software Development:
- Applications Development: Yeah Apps, basically they are non-Web based software, used by end users to solve a problem or achieve a particular task. The most common languages used by applications developers are Java, Visual Basic, VB.NET, and C#.
- Systems Development: Coding and designing a software that works behind the scene. The most common languages used by systems developers are C and C++.
- Web Development: Designing and coding sites/applications housed by web browsers. The most common languages used by Web developers are HTML, VBScript, PHP, JavaScript, VB.NET, and C#.
- Embedded Systems Development: This is what I’m into currently, it is all about coding and designing applications that work on non-computer devices. The most common languages used by embedded systems developers are Assembly Languages, C, and special one-of-a-kind languages.
So, these are just some of the stuff you can do in software development, you can search and find other interesting areas, such as game development and so on.
Which Programming Language Should I Learn?
There are a lot of computer programming languages you can choose from: Python, C, C++, SQL, C#, Java, Swift, and the list goes on. So, it’s important for you to understand how these languages work, where to use different language and why they exist, this will make it a bit easier for you to decide what language to go for. But advisable, do not to pick a complicated programming language for a start, start off with the simplest language.
How do I Become a Great Developer?
- Practice: It is said that practice makes perfect, well programming is a lot more like learning an instrument where you have to practice every day.
- Explore: Think of how to approach a problem, how to break that problem down, how to test and find bugs and how to improve performance and maintainability. Find your own project, check open sources, join competitive programming sites, and also make mistakes.
- Right Company: Move with people with whom you have the same mission and vision with.
- Find a mentor: This is self-explanatory but can be difficult at times.
There you have it, I hope this benefits someone. if you have any question or anything you need more clarification on, feel free to drop it in the comment box or send me a mail will be sure to reply. Thank you!
