It undermines a long tradition of designing and building infrastructure in the public interest.

Old, but fun read that argues that today’s programmers are not like typical Engineers and shouldn’t really call themselves that as Engineering requires certification, is subject to government regulation, bear a burden to the public, etc.

  • enkers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    2·
    2 months ago

    I don’t think gate keeping engineering is bullshit, software or otherwise. In fact I think it is one of the few eminently important things to gatekeep.

    If computer systems have peoples lives depending on them, having accredited engineers that may be part of a chain of liability for their mistakes is a potentially life saving measure. It provides increased guarantee that someone will be held responsible, be it the firm, or in the case of bankruptcy, the individual engineer.

    This provides a significant incentive to only sign off on work that meets all relevant safety criteria.

    I’m not sure if that’s how it works in software engineering, but it certainly should.