4 ms·

Why is it that people group IT and software development together? To me, they are two completely different fields. For example, I see an IT person as a mail se

Why is it that people group IT and software development together? To me, they are two completely different fields. For example, I see an IT person as a mail server administrator in a large company, and a developer as the person who would write the mail server software. I'm not saying that an IT professional never writes code, or a developer won't ever touch a Nginx config file. I just mean they are two different types of work. It's something I have noticed for a while now, not only with your article.

unimpressive 14y ago
Because people as a general rule abstract anything related to computers or computing into one lump object. This vague, ossified amber of the interwingled nature of computer media causes problems with understanding computers. That and the sort of person who does development ends up doing some IT and Vice versa.
- derleth 14y ago
  > Because people as a general rule abstract anything related to computers or computing into one lump object. This vague, ossified amber of the interwingled nature of computer media causes problems with understanding computers. The same thing happens with every field. If you're at all medical, you're lumped into the 'doctor' category regardless of whether you're a neurosurgeon or a scrub tech, and all doctor-type humanoids know everything about everything from the cingulate gyrus to my granny's chilblains. Which is still closer to the truth than imagining that everyone who is 'good with computers' can instantly diagnose and fix every single problem that has ever come up for everything that can run software.
zh 14y ago
It's not like this any more. That's why recently there are so many "software engineers" - you write your Ruby code, install and configure NginX, Passenger etc., even support a cluster of machines (LB, DB, Apps), maybe with a little help for Chef.
- sounders 14y ago
  I think it's interesting that people with a computer science and technical background are often referred to as "engineers" in tech. It seems like such a general label that can apply to anyone from a chemical engineer to a CS major, it all depends on the context.
  - Evbn 14y ago
    To train drivers to army bridge builders.
  - zh 14y ago
    At least in university I went, first 2 years was pretty much general engineering, with chemistry and biology etc. included. Even now, most of grantpas and grantmas around, I'm speaking with, if I tell them, that I'm engineer, they trying to ask me to fix their TV/computer/washing machine etc. In most cases, I'm trying...
  - alexchamberlain 14y ago
    I just graduated from Uni (in Maths). I had a lot of engineering friends, who didn't mind the CS students going into "engineering" jobs. They got really annoyed with a "telephone engineer" installing their telephone line - they were like "No, you're a technician". The difference in their eyes is that engineers are designing and implementing systems, which we ofc do in software development, whereas technicians solve low-level problems in those systems.
bonzoesc 14y ago
DevOps changed that. At my first few software engineering jobs, if I didn't write any config files, they wouldn't have got written.
- dgabriel 14y ago
  Agreed! I've worked at mostly start-ups, and I have yet to work at a start-up that didn't require us all to be DevOps.
orangethirty 14y ago
class Computer: pass class IT(Computer): pass class SoftwareDeveloment(Computer): pass #that's how people see it.
- rat87 14y ago
  old style object or python 3?
  - orangethirty 14y ago
    None. Just pseudo code. :)
rmc 14y ago
Yes they are different, but they are so close aswell. After all how much job movement is there between IT & development? Lots. Compare that to the job movemement between IT & being lawyer (not that much) etc.
- alexchamberlain 14y ago
  I wish there was more movement between IT and lawyers; then we'd have some developers who understand data protection and copyright principles and some lawyers who understand IT.
  - acheron 14y ago
    Let's start with getting some lawyers to understand math first before moving on to IT.
  - finnw 14y ago
    Whatever you do, don't get into a bikeshed argument with a lawyer-turned-programmer. If they were a good lawyer, they will be an expert in persuasion, and can get you fired for disagreeing with them about Allman-vs-BSD indenting. Not out of malice, but just by following their old habits.

unimpressive 14y ago

Because people as a general rule abstract anything related to computers or computing into one lump object. This vague, ossified amber of the interwingled nature of computer media causes problems with understanding computers. That and the sort of person who does development ends up doing some IT and Vice versa.

derleth 14y ago
> Because people as a general rule abstract anything related to computers or computing into one lump object. This vague, ossified amber of the interwingled nature of computer media causes problems with understanding computers. The same thing happens with every field. If you're at all medical, you're lumped into the 'doctor' category regardless of whether you're a neurosurgeon or a scrub tech, and all doctor-type humanoids know everything about everything from the cingulate gyrus to my granny's chilblains. Which is still closer to the truth than imagining that everyone who is 'good with computers' can instantly diagnose and fix every single problem that has ever come up for everything that can run software.

zh 14y ago

It's not like this any more. That's why recently there are so many "software engineers" - you write your Ruby code, install and configure NginX, Passenger etc., even support a cluster of machines (LB, DB, Apps), maybe with a little help for Chef.

sounders 14y ago
I think it's interesting that people with a computer science and technical background are often referred to as "engineers" in tech. It seems like such a general label that can apply to anyone from a chemical engineer to a CS major, it all depends on the context.
- Evbn 14y ago
  To train drivers to army bridge builders.
- zh 14y ago
  At least in university I went, first 2 years was pretty much general engineering, with chemistry and biology etc. included. Even now, most of grantpas and grantmas around, I'm speaking with, if I tell them, that I'm engineer, they trying to ask me to fix their TV/computer/washing machine etc. In most cases, I'm trying...
- alexchamberlain 14y ago
  I just graduated from Uni (in Maths). I had a lot of engineering friends, who didn't mind the CS students going into "engineering" jobs. They got really annoyed with a "telephone engineer" installing their telephone line - they were like "No, you're a technician". The difference in their eyes is that engineers are designing and implementing systems, which we ofc do in software development, whereas technicians solve low-level problems in those systems.

bonzoesc 14y ago

DevOps changed that. At my first few software engineering jobs, if I didn't write any config files, they wouldn't have got written.

dgabriel 14y ago
Agreed! I've worked at mostly start-ups, and I have yet to work at a start-up that didn't require us all to be DevOps.

orangethirty 14y ago

class Computer: pass class IT(Computer): pass class SoftwareDeveloment(Computer): pass #that's how people see it.

rat87 14y ago
old style object or python 3?
- orangethirty 14y ago
  None. Just pseudo code. :)

rmc 14y ago

Yes they are different, but they are so close aswell. After all how much job movement is there between IT & development? Lots. Compare that to the job movemement between IT & being lawyer (not that much) etc.

alexchamberlain 14y ago
I wish there was more movement between IT and lawyers; then we'd have some developers who understand data protection and copyright principles and some lawyers who understand IT.
- acheron 14y ago
  Let's start with getting some lawyers to understand math first before moving on to IT.
- finnw 14y ago
  Whatever you do, don't get into a bikeshed argument with a lawyer-turned-programmer. If they were a good lawyer, they will be an expert in persuasion, and can get you fired for disagreeing with them about Allman-vs-BSD indenting. Not out of malice, but just by following their old habits.