Software developers   https://www.dataart.com/  play a less formal role than engineers and may be closely associated with specific areas of a project, including coding. At the same time, they manage the overall software development life cycle – including working across functional groups to translate requirements into features, managing development teams and processes, and conducting software testing and maintenance.

Software development work is not limited to programmers or development teams. Professionals such as scientists, device manufacturers, and hardware manufacturers also create software code, although they are not primarily software developers. It is also not limited to traditional information technology industries such as software or the semiconductor business.

An important difference is custom software development as opposed to commercial software development. Custom software development is the process of designing, building, deploying, and maintaining software for a specific set of users, functions, or organizations. In contrast, commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) is designed for a wide range of requirements, allowing it to be packaged, commercially sold, and distributed.