In 2004 there were more than 760,000 software engineers employed in the United States. To put this in perspective there were about 1.4 million engineers (combining all engineering disciplines) employed in the United States that same year.

During the 1990s it became acceptable to list ‘software engineer’ as a description of past jobs having even remotely to do with the creation of modification of software. Though this is still practiced, it is becoming more frowned upon. At the other end of the spectrum, now that there are Software Engineering degrees given by accredited universities and colleges this more official credit is found on resumes nowadays.

Because of these blurry lines and mixed standards, many people outside of a given corporate setting may believe that there is no distinction between the one-time software engineer or the ‘software modifier’ and a fully certified and degreed software engineer. In practice, the existing system of checking out the past work citations submitted by job applicants is considered to be adequate for hiring and legal liability reasons.

Many people feel that the term ‘software developer’ is much more apt to describe the creation of software than that of ‘software engineer’. Those of this school of thought seem to agree that there should be some limitation on just how far removed from concrete, physical materials applied ‘engineering’ can be.

Still others feel that the term ‘software craftsmanship’ would be more appropriate than ‘software engineering’ in that there is no strict set of procedures and rules to the development of software. In other words, software needs and end product suites differ so widely that it makes more sense to refer to the practice of creating software as ‘software craftsmanship’. Promoters of this term argue that there is a clearer focus on the skills of the developer rather than the product. For example, just as not every worker on a construction site is a civil engineer, not every person who writes code is a software engineer.

Engineers of the more traditional and physical senses sometimes argue that the designation ‘engineer’ should only be given to those who have undergone extended and highly specialized education, or that a science as young as software engineering does not warrant such a definitive title. It is clear that the field of software development is changing and evolving so rapidly that members of the industry often agree themselves that there are better, more descriptive titles than ‘software engineering’.

Tags : engineer, engineering, software, software engineering, education, craftmanship, colleges, universities

This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 8:30 am and is filed under Software Engineering. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.