instead of arguing to stop custom solution and start building software and infrastructure as interchangeable parts, the article jumps to the very opposite conclusion
meanwhile, software as engineering actually exists and fly planes and bring spaceships to mun and beyond
the sad truth is that the customer often wants an engineered system but pretends it from college students paid in food stamps - well, you get what you pay for.
imho the first company that comes with an ikea model to the world of software - rugged, good enough, cheap - will dominate the next half century.
we're, at best, artisans and craftsman of software, but lets not pretend that's the trend. race to bottom will drive toward the win of mass engineering; we are actually already looking at this trend like now, where it is more and more reasonable to build an application out of existing services than rolling your own.
Just a decade ago would have been impossible in a year to bring about the same amount of feature today you can get for 9.99 off the shelf with the likes of intercom, keen.io, reveal.js, chargebee etc.
Software engineering is unfit for custom software development; that I concede; but it is just bound to happen as economy to scales drive do-or-buy decision toward microservices.
It's quite common for other kinds of engineers to design custom solutions. For example I have seen with my own eyes, motorized stripper pastie tassels. They were designed by an engineering firm.
My gripe about software engineering is that anyone may call themselves a software engineer, even if they have no clue about engineering.
In the US, Civil Engineers require a Professional Engineer's license because an incompetently designed gas pipe took the lives of three hundred when it exploded.
In Canada, one must be a Professional Engineer to claim you are an engineer of any sort. Just having a computer science degree does not count, you need a software engineering degree and that is quite a different thing.
The Ontario Society of Engineers always wins its lawsuits against MCSEs and the "schools" that "train" them.
This because a truss bridge collapsed over a river in Quebec, taking the lives of one thousand construction workers.
Great comment, thanks. I agree on the difference between a Computer Science degree and a Software engineering degree. I have the former (Comp Sci), and that's the premise for my article. Many folks were never taught the strict definition of "engineering", and believe that's what they do as software devs. I know that's not what I do.
Wow... this hit Hacker News a second time!
I agree, perhaps we should be pushing more in the direction of engineering... at least for certain kinds of project / product. At startups, there's definitely a push in the opposite direction; towards Agile, less formality, etc. I suspect the two approaches to continue diverging.
> Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.
The author should probably revise his definition of engineering.
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[ 4.5 ms ] story [ 18.3 ms ] threadinstead of arguing to stop custom solution and start building software and infrastructure as interchangeable parts, the article jumps to the very opposite conclusion
meanwhile, software as engineering actually exists and fly planes and bring spaceships to mun and beyond
the sad truth is that the customer often wants an engineered system but pretends it from college students paid in food stamps - well, you get what you pay for.
imho the first company that comes with an ikea model to the world of software - rugged, good enough, cheap - will dominate the next half century.
we're, at best, artisans and craftsman of software, but lets not pretend that's the trend. race to bottom will drive toward the win of mass engineering; we are actually already looking at this trend like now, where it is more and more reasonable to build an application out of existing services than rolling your own.
Just a decade ago would have been impossible in a year to bring about the same amount of feature today you can get for 9.99 off the shelf with the likes of intercom, keen.io, reveal.js, chargebee etc.
Software engineering is unfit for custom software development; that I concede; but it is just bound to happen as economy to scales drive do-or-buy decision toward microservices.
My gripe about software engineering is that anyone may call themselves a software engineer, even if they have no clue about engineering.
In the US, Civil Engineers require a Professional Engineer's license because an incompetently designed gas pipe took the lives of three hundred when it exploded.
In Canada, one must be a Professional Engineer to claim you are an engineer of any sort. Just having a computer science degree does not count, you need a software engineering degree and that is quite a different thing.
The Ontario Society of Engineers always wins its lawsuits against MCSEs and the "schools" that "train" them.
This because a truss bridge collapsed over a river in Quebec, taking the lives of one thousand construction workers.
My real gripe is with the "Software Engineers" who hung out their shingle after reading books like "Learn Java in 21 Days".
> Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.
The author should probably revise his definition of engineering.