A lead programmer is a software engineer in charge of one or more software projects. Software engineering is the application of a systematic disciplined quantifiable approach to the development operation and maintenance of Software. Computer programs (also software programs, or just programs) are instructions for a Computer. Alternative titles include Development Lead, Technical Lead, Senior Software Engineer, Software Design Engineer Lead (SDE Lead), Software Manager, or Senior Applications Developer. When primarily contributing in a high-level enterprise software design role, the title Software Architect (or similar) is often used. All of these titles can have different meanings depending on the context.
Responsibilities
A lead programmer's exact responsibilities vary from company to company, but in general he or she is responsible for the underlying architecture for the software program, as well as for overseeing the work being done by any other software engineers working on the project. The software architecture of a program or computing system is the structure or structures of the system, which comprise software components the externally visible properties A lead programmer will typically also act as a mentor for new or lower-level software developers or programmers, as well as for all the members on the development team. MENTOR / The National Mentoring Partnership is an advocate and resource for Mentoring in the United States. A programmer is someone who writes Computer software. The term computer programmer can refer to a specialist in one area of computer programming or to a generalist
Although the responsibilities are primarily technical, lead programmers also generally serve as an interface between the programmers and management and have supervisorial responsibilities in delegating work and ensuring that software projects come in on time and under budget. Lead programmers also serve as technical advisers to management and provide programming perspective on requirements. Typically a lead programmer will oversee a development team of between two and ten programmers, with three to five often considered the ideal size. Teams larger than ten programmers tend to become unmanageable without additional structure. A lead programmer normally reports to a manager with overall project or section responsibility, such as a director or product unit manager (PUM).
Qualifications
Lead programmers are usually trained in software programming, although many do not have formal degrees in the subject, and learn management responsibilities either on the job or through short courses. Because their primary training is technical rather than managerial, lead programmers tend to be seen and to see themselves as part of the technical staff of a company rather than as part of management. This cultural identification is valuable, since subordinate programmers will tend to not take direction from someone perceived as lacking in technical skills.
Famous lead programmers
Lead programmers often spend their careers mired in obscurity. Some have, however, broken the mold and have, through some ground-breaking work, become internationally famous. Some renowned lead programmers include:
John D Carmack II (born August 20 1970) is an American Game programmer, and the co-founder of Id Software. David Neil Cutler Sr (born March 13, 1942) is a noted American Software engineer, designer and developer Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper ( December 9 1906 – January 1 1992) was an American Computer scientist and United Donald Ervin Knuth (kəˈnuːθ (born 10 January 1938) is a renowned computer scientist and Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer is a Video game designer, programmer, the former head of Sonic Team, a group of Sega programmers/designers the lead programmer of the original Bjarne Stroustrup (/'bjɑːnə 'sdʁʌʊ̯ˀsdʁɔb/ born December 30, 1950 in Aarhus James Clark, ( February 23 1964) is the author of groff and expat and has done much work with Open-source software and XMLDapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic