[Discuss] Programming vs Engineering

[richard.pieri at gmail.com (Richard Pieri)]

On Jan 21, 2012, at 7:08 PM, Guy Gold wrote:
> 
> Allow me to join your rant Richard, with minor adjustments.
> Yes, undoubtedly the word " Engineer " is easily and cheaply used in the
> software and IT world, but some folks in the software world do justify
> the title.

Well, no, I don't agree.  I'm not trying to belittle Dennis Ritchie or Tim Berners-Lee and their peers; nor am I trying to belittle their work.  They've done great things, but great accomplishments do not make them Engineers.

Engineers, like doctors, are licensed professionals.  They are held to codified standards of practice and ethics.  Like doctors, if they violate those standards then they lose their licenses to practice.  This is a fundamental difference between a "software engineer" and a Professional Engineer.  Programmers typically are not held to any standards other than those set by their employers, and those typically revolve around meeting deadlines rather than things like safety and ethics.  Meeting a deadline is more important than ensuring that a program won't flake out and kill someone.

I think this is a problem.  I think that Software Engineers should join the ranks of Professional Engineering professions and that they should be trained and tested and licensed the same as other Professional Engineers.  And just like other Professional Engineers they should be held to codified standards of practice and ethics that trump corporate policies and release schedules.

No, I don't expect every programmer to be a Software Engineer, no more than I expect every construction worker to be a Civil Engineer.  That'd be crazy -- and nothing would ever get built.  As long as we have a need for real Software Engineers we will have a need for skilled programmers to "build" the software that they design.

--Rich P.