Are software engineers real engineers?
There are a couple of issues with this question:
- first off, in software development we interchange the words "programmer", "software developer", and "software engineering"
- second, there is the issue of prestige due to societal norms, that engineers are better than developers similar to doctors vs nurses
Thus a better purposed term would be a "software craftsman", because
> software is not a kind of engineering, being much more free-form creative and flexible. We’re not line workers but artisans, artists, people who take pride in the craft we do and the flexibility of our states.
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@hackernews@die-partei.social - Are We Really Engineers? - https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/are-we-really-engineers/
@barefootstache @hackernews@die-partei.social article 404's but the answer is, "sometimes". there are "software engineers" who apply the tools of engineering to the creation of software, which I would say is real engineering. some of what we do is crafting components and assembling them, but we also plan, design, test components, do trade studies, characterize defects, etc. Jr engineers may not be doing the whole engineering lifecycle, but that doesn't mean the title misapplied since they are still part of the engineering enterprise.
#software #softwareengineering
@barefootstache thanks. I think my opinion is pretty much the same after reading the article, though I would add that I agree with "engineering is what engineers do": to the extent that we're called engineers, and, importantly, not distanced as "just" software engineers, then we are engineers. certainly, we could glom together truly unrelated fields and sets of practices under a label in a way that is not supportable, but at least here, I think it's a rational grouping
@2ck don't know why the link did it, though here is the fixed version
https://www.hillelwayne.com/post/are-we-really-engineers/