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How about this one: (c) If your project assumes the underlying device/system will behave exactly as it is told to, then you might be in a discipline that is di
by dataflow 5y ago
How about this one:
(c) If your project assumes the underlying device/system will behave exactly as it is told to, then you might be in a discipline that is distinct from engineering.
This means "engineering" would include some software projects (like fault-tolerant system design), but exclude many others (like most desktop/mobile/web apps, perhaps with components like databases being exceptions).
My rationale for this is that, best as I can tell, traditional engineering is (for the lack of a better phrase) about "taming the real world"—which doesn't always behave the way you tell it to, because it's inherently uncertain, failure-prone, and impossible to model exactly. So if your task is dealing with that, then you're doing engineering. Whereas if your main problem is coming up with the correct specification—but you assume it will be executed faithfully—then it's not really engineering per se, but something else (not sure if we have a name for it).
Thoughts?
- Scramblejams 5y agoIntriguing! I'll have to let that percolate...
- dataflow 5y agoI haven't fully figured out the implications to be honest. Some are more intuitive than others. For example, it would mean (some?) financial engineering is a misnomer ;) but it would also suggest that designing digital circuits is only engineering in certain cases, like high-speed cases where you have to make the design robust to extraneous analog effects. For what it's worth, I think it somewhat aligns somewhat with your point about abstractions.
- Scramblejams 5y agoI appreciate the focus on abstractions. I'm unenthusiastic about giving up on (b), because when you've got a discipline where anybody can reach for any old terrible abstraction and stand some unholy monstrosity up that actually seems to work okay, I have a difficult time wanting to call it engineering. And I am fully in favor of financial engineering not being engineering. :-)