Software Engineer vs Computer Programmer

[RhinoBull]

...Given instructions by the software engineer or analyst the computer programmer can produce the code requested.

Without knowing the entire picture it's difficult to "produce" anything decent. It is best when programmers are involved in the design.

[szlamany]

Without knowing the entire picture it's difficult to "produce" anything decent. It is best when programmers are involved in the design.

We run our shop as you suggest - the programmers are involved and fully understand the scope.

But I've also done contract programming at sites that had me work as a coder - with no understanding of the full-system. This technique is used in many large shops.

I wonder what experiences other veteran forum members have had...

[RhinoBull]

We run our shop as you suggest - the programmers are involved and fully understand the scope...

Glad to hear that - let me know if you need any help - it sounds like fun place.

...But I've also done contract programming at sites that had me work as a coder - with no understanding of the full-system. This technique is used in many large shops...

I've been once in the situation like that - do this, do that in the presize way you're told... After few weeks I asked if I can see the entire picture or at least the scope of the part I was working on and you know I ended up in VP's office... We had a very long and not very pleasant conversation but to my big surprize he decided to "experiment" and follow (partially) my recomendations. Programmers and analysts loved that, all team leads hated it as they couldn't command any more in the way they did. Development cycle became much more productive so everybody benefits. But those team leads (mostly old timers) liked to have the "dummys"...
It was alot fun...

[szlamany]

Glad to hear that - let me know if you need any help - it sounds like fun place.

We just started marketing one of our product lines - if sales go the way we all hope I'll take you up on that

[Hack]

Without knowing the entire picture it's difficult to "produce" anything decent. It is best when programmers are involved in the design.

I would agree, but seldom does that happen in my world.

I have an inbox and an outbox. Specs get put in the Inbox, I code what is on the sheet, put the spec sheet in my outbox, and ship the code to QA for testing. Half the time I have no clue how what I'm doing fits into the application as a whole.