Obviously mastering the technical aspects of software development are important. However, hopefully as you’ve seen from the class already, there is more to it than just “coding”.

The book outlines 7 traits that they feel are necessary to be a good software engineer.

Individual Responsibility

Works to deliver on promises they make to their peers, stakeholders, and management. They will do what is necessary to drive a successful outcome.

Acute Awareness

Realize the needs of their team mates, stakeholders, and managers. They can observe their environment and adjust their behavior to adapt to the needs of what is going on.

Brutally Honest

Flaws found must be pointed out, in a constructive way. They will not distort facts or information about skills, timelines, or features, opting to be realistic and truthful.

Resilience Under Pressure

There will be pressure, and potential chaos. They must be able to operate efficiently and effectively while under that pressure.

Sense of Fairness

Share credit. Avoid Conflicts of Interest. Never sabotage someone else’s work.

Attention to Detail

They make technical decisions on a daily basis against broader criteria.

Characteristics of a Software Engineer was originally found on Access 2 Learn

Assistant Professor

Walter Wimberly is an Assistant Professor at a regional college in Tennessee, teaching Computer Science in the Software Engineering track. He works as a student advisor, oversees curriculum changes, develops new courses, and manages the advisory panel.
Walter taught full time for about 7 years, before going back into “industry” as a full stack Software Developer for a dozen years. There he focused on web based projects coding in JavaScript/jQuery and utilizing the Bootstrap CSS Framework on the front-end, and coding in PHP, ASP/ASP.Net, SQL on the back-end.

Since he loves teaching, he taught as an adjunct web and digital media classes for eight (8) years, while working in industry, and has since returned to teaching full time.

He has been married for over 25 years, and is father to several special needs boys. As such, he is working on some projects to help others who have special needs to be self-sufficient, and support the care givers of those with special needs. Check out his Autism blog for more info.

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