Programmers should stop calling themselves engineers (2015)

Re:Programmers should stop calling themselves engineers (2015) by leoedin on Sunday May 26, 2019 @05:12AM (#20013936)

I've got an aerospace engineering degree and have worked across a number of industries, from satellites to robotics. These days my job is about 50% software.

Software development feels the same as other engineering design. You generate requirements, prototype, test and iterate.

To argue that it's not engineering because it's not regulated is stupid, partly because most engineering fields outside of buildings aren't particularly regulated anyway, and partly because there's loads of regulations which are just as relevant to software engineering.

Generally safety standards apply to the whole system - not just the electronic design, but the software and hardware interaction. The complexity of software means you have to take a slightly different approach to actually quantify risk of failure, but it's still very much engineering.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Programmers should stop calling themselves engineers (2015) by pjmlp on Sunday May 26, 2019 @05:18AM (#20013960)

Thing is, it is regulated, sadly not enough world wide.

Back in Portugal no one can call themselves Engineers if their degree wasn't done at an university validated by the Order.

And even then, you are only allowed to sign certain kinds of projects after getting the professional title.

Naturally coders, with roles similar to construction workers, can be anything.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Programmers should stop calling themselves engineers (2015) by leoedin on Sunday May 26, 2019 @06:12AM (#20014138)

I think software development is a wide range of things, all the way from hacking on WordPress plugins to safety critical software. "engineering" comes in somewhere on that spectrum. Some software development is engineering, but not all is.

[ Parent | on HN ]