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I _think_ I'd like to see software development get some sort of accreditation because... man, there are a lot of people doing it who shouldn't be doing it. But

I _think_ I'd like to see software development get some sort of accreditation because... man, there are a lot of people doing it who shouldn't be doing it. But I wonder if that would really do much beyond requiring everybody who worked as a programmer to pay some annual fee and fill out some extra documentation every time they made a change.

techwizrd 2y ago
NCEES attempted to create an accreditation scheme in the US for Software Engineering, but canceled it because few people took the exam [0]. It's not surprising that almost no one took the exam. It wasn't well publicized and employers do not require an FE or PE for software engineers. You also have to pass the FE. The closest relevant prerequisite was the FE in Electrical and Computer Engineering, which most CS coursework would not cover. And you need to spend 4 years working under a licensed PE. Ill-conceived and executed. 0: https://ncees.org/ncees-discontinuing-pe-software-engineering-exam/ https://ncees.org/ncees-discontinuing-pe-software-engineerin...
johnnyjeans 2y ago
I certainly wouldn't, especially if it's going to be modeled on other accredited fields like Medicine and Engineering where you can't even see the review board until you've made it through formal education. Software development is one of the few places where someone like me, who is allergic to pedagogy, was able to find professional success not mired in stifling bureaucracy. The overwhelming majority of software has absolutely zero criticality. The retail staff at your local supermarket can do more damage through negligence than virtually any given programmer. Fucking us over because of an incalculably tiny minority of jobs is a ludicrous proposition. No thanks. Yeah, there are a lot of people who have no business making this field their profession. It's also a profession that's rather difficult to test for competency without filtering out 95%+ of the workforce. That's why it's important for leadership in charge of those roles to have deep domain knowledge to filter out people who aren't up for it. That's the entire point of an in-depth interview process.

techwizrd 2y ago

NCEES attempted to create an accreditation scheme in the US for Software Engineering, but canceled it because few people took the exam [0]. It's not surprising that almost no one took the exam. It wasn't well publicized and employers do not require an FE or PE for software engineers. You also have to pass the FE. The closest relevant prerequisite was the FE in Electrical and Computer Engineering, which most CS coursework would not cover. And you need to spend 4 years working under a licensed PE. Ill-conceived and executed. 0: https://ncees.org/ncees-discontinuing-pe-software-engineering-exam/ https://ncees.org/ncees-discontinuing-pe-software-engineerin...

johnnyjeans 2y ago

I certainly wouldn't, especially if it's going to be modeled on other accredited fields like Medicine and Engineering where you can't even see the review board until you've made it through formal education. Software development is one of the few places where someone like me, who is allergic to pedagogy, was able to find professional success not mired in stifling bureaucracy. The overwhelming majority of software has absolutely zero criticality. The retail staff at your local supermarket can do more damage through negligence than virtually any given programmer. Fucking us over because of an incalculably tiny minority of jobs is a ludicrous proposition. No thanks. Yeah, there are a lot of people who have no business making this field their profession. It's also a profession that's rather difficult to test for competency without filtering out 95%+ of the workforce. That's why it's important for leadership in charge of those roles to have deep domain knowledge to filter out people who aren't up for it. That's the entire point of an in-depth interview process.