The Crossover of Software Engineering in the Real World
13 Dec 2023
Source: https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/what-is-software-engineering
Software Engineering Skills and Their Applications
Concepts learned and used in software engineering have a wide range of applications. This means that learning practices for software engineering can help you in other areas of your career and life. Today, I would like to discuss how learning coding standards, configuration management, and design patterns can have an impact beyond the software field.
Coding Standards: A Foundation for Neat and Organized Code
To start, learning coding standards is tedious for software engineers; they are familiar with this. Conforming your code to a specific standard is not always fun. For those who have never experienced this, it usually means rewriting and reading documentation to make your code neat and organized. It brings order to a complex thing, while in itself adding to the complexity of the project. This skill can be carried into other engineering fields, writing, and so much more. It teaches people the ability to conform to a standard set of language for a project with other people. The result is well-documented processes in projects and, hopefully, less confusion among other people working on the project.
Configuration Management: Keeping Everyone in the Loop
Secondly, to note is configuration management. Effective configuration management means team members working on projects are in the loop and up to date. It means using technology to update the project across all members’ environments. The most important concept of configuration management to apply to other areas is the ability to have multiple people working on a project and keep a working up-to-date version of the project. An area besides software engineering this can be helpful for is project management. As a project manager, you have to ensure your team is up to date with the correct information, and everyone is on the same page to effectively deliver products.
Design Patterns: A Universal Language for Project Structure
Finally, design patterns are common in all projects. Design patterns dictate the protocol for how to operate and make up small pieces that make up the large part of projects. It is important to be able to identify design patterns in all projects. In the physical world, some areas that could be helpful are construction or architecture. While other fields such as game design, marketing, and sales can take advantage of this important skill.
Extracting Value: Applying Software Skills Beyond the Code
Over the semester, I have found tremendous value in the software-specific skills learned. I will keep an open mind in the future, trying to find areas where these skills can be used outside of software. Until then, I plan to keep using them for software, in the classroom and working on personal projects. Because even small projects can benefit from these skills to improve their efficiency and effectiveness.