Software Product Engineering Vs Software Development
                     Software Product Engineering Vs Software 
Development
Satya K Vivek
Writes for Software product engineering and 
Embedded system development from Gadgeon
Have you been using the terms software product engineering and 
software development interchangeably all these years? Well, software 
product engineers are different from software developers. 
Although both the work profiles belong to the IT industry and they share a 
common goal, the nature of their activities is different. However, a 
software product engineer and a software developer need the same set of 
skills. So, what exactly are the differences between these two categories 
of IT work profiles?
The evolution of software developers and product engineers
At the inception of the IT industry, there was no job profile called software 
product engineer. Software developers were responsible for the entire set 
of tasks, ranging from planning to developing software architecture, 
designing, and developing.
With advancements in software, the development process started 
becoming more complex. This called for specialized skills, and gradually 
the profile of a software product engineer came into being. These 
professionals oversee the design, development, UX, and UI processes, 
understanding the aspects that make the software work.
Currently, software developers focus more on coding. On the other hand, 
product managers are responsible for testing user acceptance, market-
readiness of the product, prototype working, and communicating with the 
key stakeholders.
Software developer vs software product engineer
Let’s understand the difference between a software developer and a 
software product engineer under the following grounds.
Key focus
• Developers are responsible for coding software. So, they need to 
interpret the specific business logic and not the larger picture while 
coding.
• Product engineers work with a broader perspective. The focus lies on 
understanding the software features, problem-solving, and making 
improvements as per the recommendations of the product owner.
Software Ownership
Software developers don’t have any share of the ownership of testing, 
QA, or maintenance. They are solely responsible for working on product 
codes and passing them on to other teams. The product development 
process is solely owned by product engineers. They work on improving 
the quality of the product through different test cases. So, the 
performance of the tool largely depends on the product engineers.
Production management
Software developers are not responsible for product management or 
resolving any issue arising from the tool. They only work on the 
prescribed set of features. After coding, they proceed to the next project.  
Product engineers work on the process of production management as 
well. They create alerts during the process and fix potential issues that 
arise during the product lifecycle.
Flexibility in job roles
The job role of software developers remains restricted to making the 
recommended features functional by writing codes. So, they are not 
responsible for managing the ROI from the tool. Product engineers, on the 
other hand, shoulder a plethora of activities. They largely focus on the ROI 
and deploy relevant measures to execute the development process. So, 
product engineers tend to enjoy more flexibility.
Conclusion - software product engineering vs software development
Now that you know the difference between software development and 
software product engineering, you can draw a line between the job 
profiles of both these professionals. While developers remain more 
focused on creating software, product engineers are responsible for 
managing the same. Developing properly functional software calls for 
both these talents. So, the skills of both software developers and product 
engineers come into play in this process.
About Gadgeon
Gadgeon is known for its expertise in Industrial IoT and engineering 
excellence. We connect devices, operations, and processes to create 
business value, and revolutionize enterprises with the power of data. As 
an end-to-end technology services company, we successfully enabled the 
digital journey of customers with critical digital services ranging from 
embedded systems, cloud app development, mobile app development, 
data & analytics, application modernization, emerging technology based 
solutions, and testing & test automation across the industries such as 
connected factory, telecom & datacom, digital healthcare, CSPs, and 
home & building automation.
Thank you for time in reading this article!