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What today's software developers need to know

In addition to programming chops, today's software developers need a breadth of new and emerging skills

By Daniel P. Dern, ITworld.com, IDG News Service, 09/15/11

Today's software developers don't have to worry about many things that their predecessors used to, like coding to minimize RAM consumption even if it means significantly longer execution time, or WAN connections maxing out at 14.4 kilobits per second. (Although, there may be some out-of-fashion skills they could benefit from or that may yet regain relevance.)

However, the reverse is also true: there are many new skills and areas of expertise that today's software developers, hardware developers, system and network administrators, and other IT professionals need that simply didn't exist in the past. (Where "the past" could be anything from "more than three months ago" to five, ten, twenty or more years.) Or were only relevant for organizations and applications with immense budgets.

[Lost programming skills: What today's coders don't know and why it matters]

"The list of what you need today that you didn't need before depends on how long ago you went to school, how hard you've worked to keep up on technology, the software industry, and software engineering," says David Intersimone, Vice President of Developer Relations and Chief Evangelist for Embarcadero Technologies.

Knowing what you need to know matters, whether you're just starting out as a software developer (or planning to become one), or are a "seasoned" professional who wants to keep your chops fresh so you can stay in, re-enter, or advance.

So here, as a counterpoint to my "lost skills" article, are "found skills" -- what a number of IT professionals see as these new areas for software developers that you want add to your existing knowledge portfolio. (Disclaimer: For the most part, I've left out suggestions about specific programming languages, as too obvious.)

Using libraries

"One thing that strikes me as a new skill is the need to work with massive pre-packaged class libraries and template libraries in all the new languages, like Java or C++ or Python," says consultant and software developer Jeff Kenton. "It used to be that once you knew the language and a small set of system calls and string or math library calls, you were set to program. Now you can write complex applications by stringing library calls together and a little bit of glue to hold them all together. If you only know the language, you're not ready to produce anything."

iPhone app developer Hwee-Boon Yar, who has been writing and selling software for 10 years, says "More programming resources are now available online freely. Knowing where to look, such as stackoverflow.com, as well as what habits are good to adopt in the long run is important. For example, if you become someone who Googles for a solution to a programming problem and copy and paste every time, you will never advance your skills."

Factoring in your users

Meredith Anderson, a business and information architect, adds, "In 2008, discipline keywords like 'information architecture' and 'usability engineering' were scarce in online job postings. In 2010 there were numerous job postings with these keywords. I'm not sure whether the market acknowledged the need and existing skills, or whether the need coalesced around these words to find the skills. In any case, the skill set of user experience engineering -- usability engineering, user interface design, and information architecture -- all distinct from graphic design -- has become a formal area of expertise, described by a specific vocabulary. And in the last couple of years demand for these skills has exploded."

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.