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>Thing is, NASA (and Russian and Chinese and Indian and ...) space engineers have approached their challenges from the point of view of actual engineering, whil
by tn890 7y ago
>Thing is, NASA (and Russian and Chinese and Indian and ...) space engineers have approached their challenges from the point of view of actual engineering, while modern "software engineering" is all about craftsmanship, and just a sprinkle of actual engineering to make ourselves feel good.
What would be the quintessential differences here? We plan, we test, we revise. I'd argue we're all doing the same thing, but if you're working on a food ordering app you can afford not to be as stringent with the testing and quality, versus software that takes people into outer space.
It's just a matter of stronger concerns. Things matter more in a field where you can kill people if you have a bug, so everyone strives to do a better job, top to bottom.
- imgabe 7y agoThe difference is measuring and quantification. Engineering means you know, or can estimate, a load and perform calculations to see if your design meets that load. Most food order apps seem to be more like, eyeball it, slap something together, then it works until it doesn't, at which point you figure out a fix. That works for a while until something else breaks, so you patch a fix into that. Ad infinitum.
- BigJono 7y agoFunny you mention food order apps. UberEats web app is my prime example of how a flaming train wreck can make you a ludicrous amount of money, and how there's almost no correlation between engineering quality (not necessarily product quality) and revenue.
- exdsq 7y ago> there's almost no correlation between engineering quality (not necessarily product quality) and revenue. Agreed. Sadly I'm much more interested in engineering quality than revenue..
- tatersolid 7y agoUber loses fantastic, mind-bending amounts of money every quarter. Their apps don’t “make money.”
- bluGill 7y agoSpace starts with quality long before testing. They do formal mathematical proofs of their code. They spend a lot more time in code review. Those are just the things I know of without looking it up, I know there are other things they do.