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Despite being called an "engineer" a lot in recent years, it always feels icky because of what you just said here about it being a protected title in other indu
by bschmidt1 2y ago
Despite being called an "engineer" a lot in recent years, it always feels icky because of what you just said here about it being a protected title in other industries. Not quite imposter syndrome - just feels like the wrong word for our job. It at least leaves out the linguistic/creative aspect of programming, and the execution/quality aspect of putting it all together.
It's more like digital construction: Programming is more like the construction project, and less like the AutoCAD "design" piece that engineers work on. The AutoCAD piece has more in common with product design than programming.
If anything, designers should be "engineers" and "eng. directors", and programmers should be "technicians" and "technical directors". They engineer products, with deliverables being design documents. And the techs implement it with the deliverable being the technology itself.
- TremendousJudge 2y agoI use the title because it's what the piece of paper my university gave me when I graduated says. "Programming" is a portion of my job, alongside reviewing other people's work, design, and sitting around in meetings with people who don't have technical knowledge. Any mechanical, electrical, civil, etc, engineer will have a similar experience in many cases, except replace "programming" with something related to their area
- crawfishphase 2y agoprofessional engineer license is required in addition to graduating and other prerequisites to be called "professional engineer" tho, no? school alone is not enough to be designated a "professional engineer", right?
- mlhpdx 2y agoAnd with respect to professional engineers there is this obscure little tidbit[1]. There is nothing of the sort in software as far as I know. [1] https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics/engineers-creed https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics/engineers-...
- kevin_thibedeau 2y agoEngineering involves using repeatable processes to generate expected results. 99% of computer programming activity doesn't meet that mark.
- bitwize 2y agoIndeed. Programming is just a translation step. If you have done your information system design properly, it will have undergone several phases of stepwise refinement from requirements to code, with documents and flowcharts explaining the logic. Sadly, programmers have been doing too much of the design work in recent decades, and the result has been akin to "the inmates running the asylum".