I am often asked at social gatherings, and oddly doctors offices, what I do for a living.  For this, I have a stock answer “Software Developer,” because it is the easiest thing for people to understand.  Anyone who has worked, regardless of industry, you know that your job title rarely describes what you actually do.  In my case, in order for people to understand, I need to explain that I use multiple programming languages, multiple operating systems, while talking to clients who are unable to tell me what problem they have, and at the same time restart a mission critical system.  Whew…Way to kill a conversation…So “Software Programmer” it is. But that really is a poor description of my job.

Why a Solution Developer?

There are many good articles that outline what some people think are solution developers. Microsoft even tried to create a Solution Developer certification (now retired), but I want to explain what it means to me.

What most people do for a living is to create and implement solutions to problems.  This means that they are given a problem, use tools that they have been trained with, and produce a valuable end result.  This could be cooking food, machining parts, or teaching.  In each of these cases, we are looking for a desired outcome; cooked food, a part that fits, or a student understanding a subject.  The tools used are different, and the products for these activities are different, but we all solve problems.

In all professions, we are solving problems.  We sometimes have a say in how to solve a problem, sometimes we have a system telling us exactly what to do, how to do it, and what to do if something goes wrong.  This second type of problem are things that computers are really good at.  But at the end of the day, the real world is rarely so simple.  Situations happen that we could not have predicted (unknown/unknowns).

We cannot know that tomorrow, a new idea that will come along that completely changes what we work on and how we do that. Imagine being a horse saddle maker or horseshoe maker in the early 1900s. Could any of them have predicted that the entire industry would basically be gone in 25 years? Plainly, we need to accept that we cannot control everything.

Because of uncertainty in the real world I say that we are all Solution Developers in our own way.  We all have different tools, and these tools may not make sense to solve all problems, but we are all solving problems.  These problems could be mundane such as “the french fries burned”, to more serious “the tires are failing quality testing and could cause bodily injury”.  But at the end of the day, we have to solve issues that may not have ever occurred, and may never again. We need to adapt to solve problems.

So I call myself a Solution Developer that has in my tool chest a number of things that software related, but I also have tools that are useful for idea brainstorming, management, implementation, and maintenance.

I think you are a Solution Developer too. 

Embrace it.