Similarities between software engineering and physical engineering
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Answer:
Software engineering is a term that, like software architecture, is an analogy for the real thing.
Nowadays, most engineers start off at university, but four or five years of academic experience does not an engineer fully make. In the US, for example, additionally some four years of working experience is required to become a chartered engineer, which is a professional certification somewhat similar to becoming a lawyer only once one has been called to the bar in a specific jurisdiction.
We could call software developers that specialise in debugging rather than writing new code “software doctors”. Fortunately we don’t, but the ridiculous analogy is actually pretty much the same as the one in common use.
Now, computers definitely need electrical engineers working there, and in mission-critical cases such as landing on the moon for the first time, software for nuclear reactors or for many medical applications, you definitely need to have the end-result of centuries of experience developed in the engineering profession in the mix.
I would estimate that more engineers become managers of people with technical skills (mechanics for mechanical engineering, electricians for electrical engineers on large projects, and so on and so forth) than spend their entire career “engineering”. On the other hand, a software engineer is essentially a glorified programmer.
It is rather unfortunate that in the US the term “engineer” as opposed to “developer” for software has become so widespread. But on the other hand, it is just a word. It is much more unfortunate that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea isn’t any of those things, because it is the Northern one.
That said, things are improving, with the ubiquity of the internet and perhaps above all startup culture, in that often managers in the software industry now do have the technical experience themselves. And by startups, I do also mean MSFT and Apple.
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