What is Programming?

As a new programmer, it is important for you to:

• Know that programming is an art which training can improve upon but that you can not become a programmer unless programming is an art that you were given as a human being.

• Know the company you work for and the internal politics which is as important as the computer concept that you will use.

• Know and to be able to converse with the business clients, the users and other stakeholders for whom the program is being developed.

• Know the field for which the program is going to be developed.

• Know that software is:

  • a computer program (i.e. code)

  • the procedures for using the code

  • the documentation which describes the reasons for creating it, describes the code, and describes how to use it.

  • data to run the code on to test all possibilities

But what is most important for you is the need to: "Know thyself" and you need to ask yourself

• How do I approach problems?

• How do I work with others?

• Which of the 5 phases of software life cycle that will be discussed below do I enjoy most and which do I do well in?