Found in 2 comments on Hacker News
btilly · 2017-11-16 · Original thread
The value of the system shows up in things like civil engineering when it is required that an accredited engineer signs off on the design. That engineer has personal liability if the building fails. The engineer's boss cannot simply order the engineer to sign off on the design, if the engineer says that you must, it has real weight.

The US has the same basic system, all that is different is how strictly the word "engineer" is regulated. And that varies by state.

Before that system was adopted, bridges fell down an average of once a week in the USA. We have a lot more and bigger bridges now, but not nearly as many fall down.

Read https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Software-Development-Sch... for case for doing the same thing for software development.

btilly · 2013-07-13 · Original thread
Here is an explanation that I read in a book of Steve McConnell's a decade ago.

Certain types of tasks (eg building a bridge) require an engineer to sign off on the work. And the engineer is personally liable should the design of the bridge prove faulty. An engineer is a person whose license allows them to make those representations and have it be accepted.

Most software developers lack that license, and cannot legally sign off on designs. And as an industry we don't value software development's expertise as a final say on what does or does not fly. The consequence is chronic security problems, nonfunctional software, privacy specifications, etc, etc, etc.

As a society, we are not OK with bridges falling down. But apparently we are OK with having software projects routinely overrun budgets by 100+% and still fail to deliver required functionality.

Steve McConnell makes the case in http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Software-Development-Sche... that if a true software engineering profession was recognized - not just software developers being called software developers but actual engineering certifications in the field of software development - we could begin fixing this. I don't think it will happen, nor am I totally supportive of that approach - but he makes a case worth reading.

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