What is an End User Software Engineer?

Abstract

The group of people described as end user software engineers are a very large and diverse group. For example, research scientists building simulations of complex processes are described as end user software engineers as are school teachers who create spreadsheets to track the progress of their students. Given the difference in background and domains in which different end user software engineers work, I argue that it is important to distinguish between different categories of end user software engineers. Such distinctions will enable us to determine which tools and techniques are appropriate for which types of end user software engineers. Indeed, such distinctions will also make clear the differences and similarities between end user software engineers and so called professional software engineers.