[Discuss] Programming vs Engineering

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

On Jan 21, 2012, at 10:05 PM, Jared Carlson wrote:
> 
> Come on guys... I have an ME and have done "software engineering" as well as analysis for DoD, etc..  There's a place for both, you need professional engineers who understand guidelines and procedures, etc, but you also need the theoretical who are pushing boundaries, teaching the limiting cases and all that.

If your advisor has taken his exams and maintains his licensure then he is a real ME.  If he hasn't done this then he is not an ME.  It's a formality, sure, but that formality carries certain assurances for the engineer's client's.

We do need both -- all three, actually.  We need scientists to do the hard research, to create new materials and such.  We need engineers to take the scientists' research and create blueprints for new, better things.  And we need skilled laborers and craftsmen to implement those blueprints.  I see similar distinctions in software: scientists who do that research, engineers who turn the research into plans, and programmers who write code to those plans.

Mark is right: the software industry keeps reinventing itself.  This is both good and bad.  Most of us wouldn't be in our current lines of work if it didn't, but at the same time it means that we get shoddily designed SCADA systems and medical devices, ATMs and voting machines vulnerable to all sorts of compromise, and so forth.  I think that holding PSEs' work to the same kinds of standards that we hold other PEs' work would go a long way towards preventing this kind of crap software from being released as product.

I'm not suggesting that PSEs would be required to use only certain languages or operating systems.  A Civil Engineer can use whatever materials he wants when designing a building or a bridge.  Likewise, a Software Engineer can use whatever "materials" he wants when designing a program.  What is important is that the bridge meets defined standards of safety and reliability.  Likewise, it is important that the program meets appropriately defined standards.

--Rich P.