What’s the Difference Between a Developer and a Programmer?
by Muhammad Asif | Web developer
If you’re hiring technical staff for your company, you may be asking, what is the difference between a developer, a programmer in an engineer?
Developers have a larger scope of responsibility
The basic difference between a developer and a programmer is the scope of their work.
Developers are more involved with and have a greater understanding of the full project scope.
Programmers are involved in a specific part of the project — coding.
Programmers are also known as engineers and coders
A programmer’s job includes writing code, testing, and fixing bugs.
A programmer converts a design into instructions that a computer can follow. These instructions are coded using one of many programming languages. They usually know several of these languages including Java, C#, PHP, Oracle, SQL Server, JavaScript, etc.
Specialized programmers focus on one type of programming. General programmers write code for many types of software.
Typically, programmers work in groups or teams under a senior programmer (team leader) that supervises their work.
Types of computer programmers
- Application programmers: write programs for specific tasks eg. programs to track inventory at a factory
- System programmers: write programs to maintain computer systems software eg. operating systems, database management systems
- AI/Machine Learning Engineers
- Game programmers
- Mobile developers
Developers (also referred to as software engineers)
Their job responsibilities include writing code, but they also contribute to many other aspects of the project/software development process. Along with coding, a developer's tasks often include:
- software design
- development
- research
- writing documentation and specs
- maintenance
- testing software
- core implementation
- analysis
Basically, a developer is a programmer first and foremost but with larger scope of responsibility for other aspects of the project.
