Programming versus Software Engineering

Development shops often have specific levels, grades, or ranks that their developers fall into, indicating the levels of experience, expertise, and industry wisdom expected of staff at each level. These may vary (perhaps wildly) from location to location, but a typical structure looks something like the following:

• Junior developers: A junior developer is typically someone that doesn't have much programming experience. They probably know the basics of writing code, but they are not expected to know much beyond that.
• Developers: Mid-level developers (referred to by whatever formal title might apply) usually have enough experience that they can be relied on to write reasonably solid code, with little to no supervision. They probably have enough experience to determine implementation details and strategies, and they will often have some understanding of how different chunks of code can (and do) interact with each other, and what approaches will minimize difficulties in those interactions.
• Senior developers: Senior developers have enough experience - even if it's focused on a set of specific products/projects - to firmly grasp all of the technical skills involved in typical development efforts. At this point in their careers, they will almost always have a solid handle on a lot of the non-technical (or semi-technical) skills that are involved, as well—especially policies and procedures, and strategies and tactics that encourage or enforce business values such as stability and the predictability of development efforts. They may not be experts in those areas, but they will know when to call out risks, and they will often have several options to suggest for mitigating those risks.

The dividing line between programming and software engineering falls somewhere within the differences between developers and senior developers, as far as technical capabilities and expertise are concerned. At a junior level, and sometimes at a developer level, efforts are often centered around nothing more than writing code to meet whatever requirements apply, and conforming to whatever standards are in play. Software engineering, at a senior developer level, has a big-picture view of the same end results. The bigger picture involves awareness of, and attention paid to, the following things:

• Standards, both technical/developmental and otherwise, including best practices
• The goals that code is written to accomplish, including the business values that are attached to them
• The shape and scope of the entire system that the code is a part of