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Re:How would we regulate software engineers? by headcanon on Monday December 12, 2016 @06:05PM (#13162911)
I think its difficult to find this kind of regulation for SE partially because its so new and not well understood compared to other engineering professions. What is software engineering? The kinds of things that would regulate, say, programming an operating system kernel is not the same thing as someone who makes wordpress templates. Yet both would describe themselves broadly as Software Engineers. What is the difference between the aforementioned wordpress-template-maker and someone building a full web application in React? Where is the line that divides "Engineering" begin and end?

I can see a regulatory body develop certifications around software engineers that develop critical infrastructure or spacecraft, where a single failure is catastrophic, but that expertise might not apply for the person making the interface app for the same piece of software (or working in some other layer of the stack that is not so stringent). Is that person "less" of an engineer? It opens the door to institutional bias towards what is considered "proper" engineering, and much like relying on formal education for hiring, provide a poor heuristic in hiring practices.

However I think that we will eventually get there once we figure out collectively what "place" software has in society, once these divisions settle down and become better understood, then we can figure out how to regulate each properly. I think this could be 50-100 years from now.

Re:How would we regulate software engineers? by goalieca on Monday December 12, 2016 @07:08PM (#13163331)
Wordpress template guy is doing a trade while kernel guy is engineering.
Re:How would we regulate software engineers? by tarmstrong on Monday December 12, 2016 @08:57PM (#13163860)
Not all programmers (engineer or otherwise) are guys -- probably worth keeping that in mind if you want this to be a welcoming community for everyone (:
Re:How would we regulate software engineers? by goalieca on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @10:04PM (#13173436)
Sorry, i'm canadian buddy. I do call my wife and her girl friends "you guys" from time to time.
Re:How would we regulate software engineers? by tarmstrong on Thursday December 15, 2016 @11:46AM (#13185912)
I'm Canadian too. I sometimes use "you guys" when speaking to a group that has women in it; I don't use "guy" in the singular when talking about generic technical roles because it implies that being a guy is part of the job. In many cases this is effectively true due to sexism in the industry, so it's not something to take lightly.

I don't think this is what you intended, to be clear! But I do think that is how it would be interpreted, even by Canadian women.