How would we regulate software engineers? • Hacker News Board

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#11

Post by mjevans » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:29 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #6

I have some engineering background and you only have engineers in stable predictable fields. You can predict quite accurately the failure load of a bridge truss or a transistor and its easily testable and the whole process can be simulated and verified top to bottom. My guess is the wedge to bring in engineering would be network operations, classic operations (not devops which just means we're gonna pencil whip the o…

The ethical and competency attributes are still relevant. Particularly with respect to actual engineering (architecture of the overall solution) aspects of logic systems development and deployment.

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#12

Post by parfe » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:30 PM UTC

A blanket ban on software developers lying about being engineers would be a good start.

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#13

Post by Spooky23 » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #10

Software engineers are not professionals like doctors, lawyers, or chartered accountants. Real professionals have a degree of autonomy and their primary obligation is to the ethical standards of their profession, not to their employers.

Perhaps that's a problem that professional status would help solve.

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#14

Post by tumbas » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:33 PM UTC

how would we regulate your mama and her hören zone you communist scum

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#15

Post by dimino » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:34 PM UTC

parfe wrote: post #12

A blanket ban on software developers lying about being engineers would be a good start.

Is there a universally or even widely accepted difference?

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#16

Post by kybernetyk » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:34 PM UTC

Good luck with regulating math.

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#17

Post by wildmusings » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:35 PM UTC

The first thing needs to be a culture change: "move fast and break things" is not an acceptable philosophy when you're dealing with millions of people's private conversations.

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#18

Post by woud420 » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:37 PM UTC

VLM wrote: post #6

I have some engineering background and you only have engineers in stable predictable fields. You can predict quite accurately the failure load of a bridge truss or a transistor and its easily testable and the whole process can be simulated and verified top to bottom. My guess is the wedge to bring in engineering would be network operations, classic operations (not devops which just means we're gonna pencil whip the o…

Just a note, looking at the way most companies I've been involved with handle RF testing, it still feels like some electrical engineering is at a premature stage also.

Testing a transistor is the equivalent of testing an if statement. Both are trivial. The difficulty comes from testing multiple of these components acting in sync. Let's be honest, it's sometimes not worth the return on investment to test outside of your requirements.

If software has potential to injure someone, I would hope that it's been tested to similar specifications that hardware is tested on.

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#19

Post by tarmstrong » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:38 PM UTC

ForHackernews wrote: post #10

Software engineers are not professionals like doctors, lawyers, or chartered accountants. Real professionals have a degree of autonomy and their primary obligation is to the ethical standards of their profession, not to their employers.

> their primary obligation is to the ethical standards of their profession, not to their employers.

OP here. The intended subtext of my post was that it would be nice if our industry had ethical standards as well. (:

Re: How would we regulate software engineers?

#20

Post by mLuby » Mon, Dec 12, 2016, 10:40 PM UTC

dimino wrote: post #15

parfe wrote: post #12

A blanket ban on software developers lying about being engineers would be a good start.

Is there a universally or even widely accepted difference?

The difference between software developer and software engineer is ~$10k. http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Developer/S... http://www.payscale.com/research/US/Job=Software_Engineer/Sa...