What is the difference between developer, programmer and engineer?

Question

help?

Answer 1

I agree David Carroll. (Human) language usage is rarely consistent between cultures, or indeed between people in the same culture, and language changes over time also. Those were just my definitions, and there is no right answer really.

Answer 2

In my experience, these may have different meanings in different parts of the world. In the USA, these are all interchangeable. Agile teams, in particular, tend to emphasize full stack development and take ownership in all aspects of coding, architecture, UI design, testing, and even infrastructure setup.

This is a stark contrast to the many developers I've worked with from India, where they tend to highly specialize in a specific discipline or technology. Please don't take what I said to be a reflection of all developers from India. It is limited only to my experience with many different people I've worked with throughout the past 22 years.

It certainly isn't reflective of everyone on this vastly populated sub-continent. 😉

Answer 3

They are often interchangeable terms in common language, however, I'd suggest this:

Programmer: only involved in writing code, and not testing (except possibly unit testing)

Developer: programming, but also design (they help develop a system, so could include Systems Analysis or User Interface Design)

Engineer: Design, most types of testing, systems analysis, programming, maintenance, documentation, formal methods, expert in setting up the tools necessary for development.

These are just my definitions. People could rightly disagree, because there seems to be no agreed on upon term. Similar to counselling versus psychotherapy, not everyone agrees on the definitions.

Answer 4

wow. thank you for the feedback!! i REALLY appreciate the answers!!!