system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: the difference between Software Engineer(ing) and Software Developer(ment), if there is one.

Just wondering what the difference is, if there is one. It seems that people that I know in software engineering tend to have slightly different roles than other friends who are software developers. I can't put my finger on the difference though, so I thought I'd ask.

Many thanks!
gpt
In general the two terms are fairly interchangeable, and the work done by a "software developer" at one company might be identical to the work done by a "software engineer" at another.

If there is a difference it's that Software Engineering might try to put a greater emphasis on trying to adhere to industry best-practice guidelines. So an insistence on whatever are the current in-favour development methodologies, at the moment that would include Agile techniques such as Behaviour-Driven Development, Test-Driven Development, probably Scrum or Kanban or similar.

However it's perfectly possible for someone to have a "software engineer" job title and not adhere to those methodologies.