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The Atlantic is running an article on the friction between the computing world and Professional Engineer societies. This discussion has been going on for a long time, and is meaningful to me personally - I quit a 10-year career as server administrator with 'engineer' in my job title when I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree, and have since earned my Professional Engineer license. In a world where most software comes with a disclaimer of liability due to defects, where would an ethical, civic-minded programmer even practice Professional Engineering? Angry Birds probably doesn't have any responsibility to the public safety, so there's little need there; on the other hand, Google's self-driving car program is a good candidate.
I'd love to welcome the programming profession into the circle of licensed Engineers, provided that the industry manages to agree on standards of quality and accountability. I don't see the methods (such as Agile) used by programmers as a significant obstacle, either; the programming motto of "move fast and break things" (which the article wrongly decries) is echoed in the motto "fail early, fail often" that is held by many Mech Eng R&D shops. I just fear that the halting problem will be solved before any such standards become widely accepted and implemented in the industry.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @11:19AM
Unfortunately the debate is ultimately about preservation of own career, the benefits to the public are only excuses. The sorry state of the IT industry is not caused by programmers, nor obviously by engineers, but the higher ups anyway.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @12:05PM
Exactly. This nonsense over "engineer" is no different than any other bit of "intellectual property" bullshit with people trying to claim ownership over information or in this case a mere word.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @03:52PM
Trademarks are actually useful: they are designed to reduce confusion in the marketplace.
If real engineers do not push back on this, the term will become generic.
(Score: 2) by NullPtr on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:01AM
Yeah, there must be professional managers out there now that aren't even aware that in the IT industry all you need to do to become a manager is to put on a suit and start talking shit.