What is fun about software development?

In this blog post our colleague Carla thought about why she decided to become a software developer.

Besides IT consultants and system engineers, Scandio mainly employs software developers. Why do people choose such a job? For me, there are the following reasons:

• You create something new. Where before there was nothing, you create an entire application or a new function that is then available to users and in productive use. Even if you “only” fixed a bug, at the end of the day you know exactly what you did.

• There is tricky detective work. Sometimes you may be less productive than on other days, but spend hours narrowing down a particular bug and getting to the bottom of the problem. Little by little different things have to be tried, options excluded and theories formulated, discarded or combined until you reach your goal. The way can be very frustrating, but at the same time also very instructive and exciting.

• Developing software requires logical thinking and dealing with complex structures. Depending on the size of the project, you may have to consider several different things at the same time, and during bigger refactorings you often juggle five construction sites in your head. At each of them you will still need to change something until you reach another working and stable milestone, so you better not forget anything of that. (By the way, this is one of the main reasons why it is deadly for the productivity of a developer if the phone rings constantly or someone asks ‘just a quick question’)
• Creative solutions are also needed. There is not one right way, but the one that’s most suitable given the current situation and circumstances must be found. And maybe it’s worth going back three steps and completely questioning what the user actually needs this functionality for and whether it’s really planned to be integrated and implemented the best way possible.

• Basically, software development models a part of reality. You create a digital model that should have as many details as you need - each detail more will make both the code and the application unnecessarily complex. Designing, implementing and refining this model is really exciting and can be very challenging.

All in all, this work is very diverse, especially in the project business. From simple functions, which are quickly pulled up, to complex architectures or tricky errors, everything is represented. There are different languages, frameworks and environments and the requirements of customers and projects are extremely variable. And of course, a developer does not only sit in front of code all day long, but also discusses issues with colleagues, coordinates with the customer, perhaps sketches a user interface, consults with the marketing team and much more.

A good working environment and great colleagues do the rest to make working as a software developer at Scandio really fun.