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Discussion on: Opinion: Architect VS Engineer VS Developer

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biros profile image
Boris Jamot ✊ /

I'm proud to be "just" a developer.
I design my software, I do technical choices, I assume it and I can argue them, but I'm still a developer.
The rest is bullshit.

Thanks for putting this in the debate 😉

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dwilmer profile image
Daan Wilmer

From this, I assume you probably work alone or in small teams. The responsibility of design and implementation are all yours, or easily shared between team members.

However, for larger teams to work together, you need some people to specialize to see the big picture, and others to specialize on certain smaller parts. The one responsible for the big picture is the architect, while the engineers and developers usually manage smaller parts.

There is an implicit assumption that the one overseeing the whole thing is more important or more valuable, as if the team were a military hierarchy. In reality, it's mostly just a different job.
Compare it to a football team: the coach is the one making the larger decisions, whereas the players have to turn these larger decisions into actions that actually achieve something. And it's quite clear that (looks up players from PSG, the first French football team I know) Kylian Mbappé and Thiago Silva are the stars of the team, and they're valued more than (looks up coach) Thomas Tuchel.