[rpeden]

You should of course do what you believe is best for your situation.

Patrick's observations are still useful, though. The semantics aren't ridiculous. They're a very real distinction, and they matter...especially if you're looking to move into contracting/consulting. If you find yourself doing that, it helps if you can position yourself farther up the value chain. In this situation, it helps to be able to describe yourself who understands business, communicates well, and can talk to a customer, understand their problem, and solve it. Having the ability to understand a business's problems and create software to solve those problems can give you a pretty significant advantage.

[capote]

But this means you're not a programmer. If you understand a business's problems and create software to solve those problems, you've already moved higher up in the ranks than a programmer, so of course, call yourself whatever your title is (architect, engineer, director, whatever).