Yeah I think they work differently in general. From my experience they do not benefit from iterative development the same way we do. They do but they iterate wh

Yeah I think they work differently in general. From my experience they do not benefit from iterative development the same way we do. They do but they iterate when solving the problem, usually on paper. This is partly true in my experience and you will struggle to find a Mechanical Engineer that doesn't know what Kaizen is. With engineering iterating is expensive so iteration normally would happen at design stage. However, when it comes to Construction there are different levels of iteration, for example the Consultant will produce a set of specs and drawings but is up to the specialists to produce the detail studies and shop drawings.They will also spent months with mock-ups in order to confirm compliance with requirements. However, I think every Engineering discipline (and I include Software Engineering here) can learn a lesson or two from Sanitary Engineers:) Systems produced by Drainage Engineers virtually outlive the buildings they are installed, large part of such systems are standardized (use your standard libraries). They run for almost ever and anywhere (ie, quality assurance brings reliability), they require almost no maintenenace (minimize bugs). They have very well defined objectives (no feature creep). If they don't perform well they stink so someone notices and does something about it! They employ 'set of primitives or principles' like gravity that always works, they are simple and construction can be delegated to cheaper labour (outsourcing). It is not a very glamorous field but civilization progressed when this field progressed (social responsibility). They are not expensive to design and produce. They use standard details (ie DRY principle) and I have seen .. a lot of these Sanitary Engineers debating if their discipline is ... art, engineering or science. Rings a bell? Mechanical Engineering like IT - should be IE Information Engineering:) - has is own disasters and Management problems. It is a very creative field and the only unfortunate thing is that it does not benefit from - open source. In this respect anyone in Software Engineering, should count themselves lucky! Qualifier I hold a PhD in Mechanical Engineering