What is the difference between a software analyst and a software engineer?

The major difference between a software engineer and a software analyst is that the engineer’s responsibilities lie with developing and programming the software. In some cases, the term software engineer and programmer or developer are interchangeable. An analyst, meanwhile, is more responsible for documenting the progress of a project for quality control and relaying information about the end users’ preferences to the engineer or programmer. A software analyst may also not be as technically gifted or proficient with programming as the engineer.