How do software developers work?

When you employ a software developer in your company, you have someone in a central role. They don’t just write code — they create applications, software, and tools that make day-to-day operations easier. They also work on optimising business processes and help drive innovation forward.

What are the first steps in a software developer’s job?

First of all, at the beginning of a software project, the developer must understand the requirements. In most cases, the goal is to create software that solves a specific problem or helps to automate a recurring task.

The software developer is in close contact with the product manager, the stakeholders and the customers. Here the goals of a project are defined. This process is called requirements analysis. It is defined here what the software should achieve. These can be technical or business objectives. Furthermore, the software developer evaluates the feasibility of a project. At the same time, the time and the budget are defined.

After that, the IT developer creates a detailed design of the software. He deals with the functioning of the application as well as its structure. It is important that data is processed and stored here and that different components work together. The software developer must decide here which technologies and frameworks need to be used in order to be able to develop the software.

He then usually creates a prototype of the software. Here the functionality is tested and the project manager or the stakeholders can get a first impression of the final product.

Programming is important

After that, the actual work of a software developer begins. The developer uses different programming languages such as Java, Python, JavaScript or C++ to write the code and implement the software. It is important that the code is written cleanly, has a good structure and is easy to maintain.

At this stage, tests are of course carried out again to check whether there are errors, which the software developer can then fix quickly and easily.

For version control, tools such as Git or Subversion are often used. These are systems that allow the software developer to track changes in the code. Since developers rarely work alone, they also make it possible to collaborate on a project and ensure that there are no conflicts.

The final test

Now the software enters the phase of intensive testing. Various tests are carried out to ensure that the software works without errors and, above all, that the requirements are met.

In this step, the software developer works together with a quality assurance team or the end users. The aim is to ensure that the user interface is simple and intuitive to use. If these tests are successful, the software is transferred to the production environment. Here, tools such as Jenkins, Docker or Kubernetes are used to ensure that deployment is automated and carried out consistently.

Ultimately, the software developer remains responsible for the software even after its release. It will be checked for errors routinely and regular updates will be carried out as well.

At Zeitarbeit International, we place IT specialists from Eastern Europe and Asia. Finding and recruiting the best talents for a company is the most important task in our IT recruitment. These positions are crucial for the success of companies and therefore must be filled with the right IT specialists: