The use of the title "Developer"

[Dylnuge]

Hello,

I have seen many different explanations for the title of a Software/Game/OS/Hardware Developer. Sometimes it refers to a programmer, sometimes it refers to anyone who works in the process of development, including designers and programmers and producers, and sometimes it means something entirely different.

Is there any official definition, and if not, what is the one you think of when you hear the term?

Thanks,
Dylan

[avik]

Usually, I think of the programmers and the people who actually work on the product's architecture and implementation.

Everyone else is support, in that they work on making a polished product usable by end-users, and for that they need the actual product created by the developers.

Just my two cents.

[pmasiar]

My understanding :-) is that difference between coder (== programmer) and developers is: dev is also responsible for requirement gathering and design, not only for coding modules as designed by analyst. So even if my official title is systems engineer (whatever it is), I consider myself a (web) application developer.

Forget about the title - do care about the experience!

[lisati]

My understanding is that while the word "developer" has some overlap with "analyst" and "programmer"/"coder", it is broader in scope, with a special emphasis on the programming and coding side of things.

[AlexThomson_NZ]

At my place of employment, developer == coder/programmer

There is generally no overlap, but probably only because we have enough people to provide specialist analyst/PM/testing/deployment roles.