Could you at least give us some hints about these supposedly utterly incompetent software engineers? Since I've never encountered anything close to that level of incompetence, I'm assuming there is some variable that predicts it and that I have managed to avoid that variable. Is it a certain type of company that employees these engineers? Is it possible that the issue is not even with the employee's competence at performing his or her job, but rather just a bad job title that doesn't reflect their actual role at the company?