How important are software design skills to a programmer? Programmers, in the traditional, and perhaps most widespread, view of the software development process, are not themselves seen as designers but rather as people who implement the designs of other people. The job of the programmer, after all, is to write code. Code is viewed as a "construction" activity, and everyone knows you have to complete the design before beginning construction. The real design work is performed by specialized software designers. Designers create the designs and hand them off to programmers, who turn them into code according to the designer’s specifications. In this view, then, the programmer only needs enough design skills to understand the designs given to him. The programmer’s main job is to master the tools of her trade.
