Software Developer - Separation of Concerns

Separation of Concerns

In more mature engineering disciplines such as mechanical, civil and electrical engineering, the designers are separate from the implementers. That is, the engineers who generate design documents are not the same individuals who actually build things (such as mechanical parts, circuits, or roads, for instance). In software engineering, it is more common to have the architecture, design, implementation, and test functions performed by a single individual. In particular, the design and implementation of source code is commonly integrated.

This resembles the early phases of industrialization in which individuals would both design and build things. More mature organizations have separate test groups, but the architecture, design, implementation, and unit test functions are often performed by the same highly trained individuals.