Re: Software Engineering in Florida

[Marin Condic <condicma@bogon.pwfl.com>]

Richard D Riehle wrote:

>
> In an earlier post I mentioned "industrial engineering."  It was a
> long time before physical engineers acknowledged the validity of this
> branch of engineering.  Many still refuse to take it seriously.  Our
> field, software, would probably learn something valuable from the
> evolution of industrial engineering to its current place in the
> realm of engineering.
>

Industrial Engineers still deal with the physical - the flow of raw materials
through a production process. There is a good deal of real-live math involved
in the study and design of manufacturing processes. However, I'll give you
this: Industrial Engineering comes closer to Software Engineering than other
disciplines in that it seems more concerned with a continuing process rather
than a finished product.

> Such predictability is rare in software practice.  Most programmers
> don't even recall the properties of Big O computations.  The use of
> metrics in design is practically non-existent.
>

That may be because it is seldom of any practical use. Big O is good for
either theoretical analysis of algorithms or for practical optimization of
relatively small chunks of code. Sure, we who deal with hard realtime systems
can and do consider Big O where applicable, but in most cases Big O is
useless to us. And once you get away from hard realtime, your biggest concern
is not how fast the software will run, but if it will run correctly and/or be
delivered on time to the customer. If it runs slow - get a faster computer!
:-)

Metrics in design are practically non-existent, but remember that metrics in
and of themselves are not the point. How do they move the mission forward?
What are the problems faced by the bulk of software practitioners? Is there a
subset of practitioners whos problems could be aided by metrics? Not an easy
question to answer.

I once heard it said that Physics was Applied Mathematics and that
Engineering was Applied Physics. If that is the case, then whatever it is we
do - respected, noble and scientific as it might very well be - it could not
be an Engineering discipline.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
If you hurry you can, for a short time only, still find me at:
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