Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.

“Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.” is a task performed by Software Developers. Among the occupation's 19 rated tasks, workers place it 17th by importance (#3 most important). About 92% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Develop operational or technical procedures or standards. in Drafting, Laying Out, and Specifying Technical Devices, Parts, and Equipment
• Direct scientific or technical activities. in Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E1. Direct exposure — a language model could plausibly cut the time to do this task by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 1.00. Automation potential label: T3.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Monitor functioning of equipment to ensure system operates in conformance with specifications. · importance 4.1
• Analyze user needs and software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints. · importance 4.1
• Confer with systems analysts, engineers, programmers and others to design systems and to obtain information on project limitations and capabilities, performance requirements and interfaces. · importance 3.8
• Coordinate installation of software system. · importance 3.8
• Modify existing software to correct errors, adapt it to new hardware, or upgrade interfaces and improve performance. · importance 3.7
• Prepare reports or correspondence concerning project specifications, activities, or status. · importance 3.7
• Analyze information to determine, recommend, and plan installation of a new system or modification of an existing system. · importance 3.6
• Store, retrieve, and manipulate data for analysis of system capabilities and requirements. · importance 3.6
• Design, develop and modify software systems, using scientific analysis and mathematical models to predict and measure outcomes and consequences of design. · importance 3.6
• Determine system performance standards. · importance 3.5
• Supervise the work of programmers, technologists and technicians and other engineering and scientific personnel. · importance 3.5
• Consult with customers or other departments on project status, proposals, or technical issues, such as software system design or maintenance. · importance 3.4
• Confer with data processing or project managers to obtain information on limitations or capabilities for data processing projects. · importance 3.3
• Supervise and assign work to programmers, designers, technologists, technicians, or other engineering or scientific personnel. · importance 3.1

See all tasks on the Software Developers page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-21669,
  title  = {Develop or direct software system testing or validation procedures, programming, or documentation.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-21669}
}