Software Development Lifecycle Overview | What Does a Developer Actually Do?

What Is Software Development?

The phrase software development generally covers the computer-science work of building, rolling out, and maintaining software.

Software — the collection of instructions and programs — is what tells a computer what to do. It runs separately from hardware and makes it possible to program machines.

Who Are Software Developers?

A software developer is someone who draws on programming and design know-how to create software that answers what users actually need.

Common Languages for Software Development:

HTML — HTML is a Hypertext Markup Language that lays out how an application is structured.

JAVA — Plenty of widely used development tools, such as Eclipse and NetBeans, are themselves written in Java. These days, Java is often the go-to option for scientific applications.

C — C is commonly used to build compilers and low-level programs, working hand in hand with computer hardware. Compilers for many other languages are themselves written in C.

PYTHON — Because it’s easy to learn, Python is widely used for building software and websites, automating tasks, and visualizing data.

R — With R, you can create R packages, build custom visualizations, and more, all to tackle data-science problems.

CSS — Cascading Style Sheets are the foundational style layer for software development. They teach you how to build and style web pages.

JAVASCRIPT AND MORE — JavaScript is used to build interactive web pages with straightforward features and layouts, and it’s friendly to work with.