All good questions. What I have in mind in the short term is much more in line with the ACM doc linked below by nullc. The idea of a professional degree has cr

All good questions. What I have in mind in the short term is much more in line with the ACM doc linked below by nullc. The idea of a professional degree has crossed my mind. There's enough of a gap in knowledge and ability required to transition from writing static web content to writing high quality (maintainable, operationally sound, scaleable) enterprise backend code that it starts to look like a paralegal/lawyer, LPN vs. RN, etc. distinction. The difference is that the public has little interest in regulating engineers, but it does have an interest in regulating lawyers and nurses. I'm personally deeply suspicious of degrees. I'm returning to school to get a professional masters in CSCI, but the program explicitly requires work experience as a pre-requisite for entry (which seems like a no-brainer to me). It also has a high price, which is not something I would foist on the community. I don't think "programming" should ever be tied to professional institutions as such (much less academic computer science). It has strong roots in free, open-source, decentralized, hacker-minded culture, and I don't think we should ever give that up. So I guess I'm of two minds about the idea of a professional engineering degree. On the one hand it would help raise expectations about professionalism and accountability in software, which seem pitifully low right now, and on the other hand, it seems like a path no one in their right mind would want to go down.