Re: The U.S. DoD in Software Fantasyland

[rich@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Richard Pettit)]

>........excellent discussion on how software engineers are viewed as
>nothing more than clerks that know the square root of 25............

This is a very crucial issue in the software community, it is my opinion.
It is additionally painful when discussing the issue in light of the
decisions made about Ada over the past decade.  However, the problem
proliferates throughout the language and application spectrum.
Cobol programmers garner no more respect from other software professionals
than they do their employers, yet the lions share of the financial software
that keeps the world running is written with this language by these people.
And I don't think I need even discuss the "UNIX mentality" stereotype.

Yet, regardless of the criticality of the application, or the general
opinion of the language, software engineers have to be taken for what
they are: engineers.

There is something very large and very important missing in the profession
of software engineering.  This is probably a system for giving software
professionals credentials.  And rating the criticality of a software
system on the basis of how many and at what level credentialed professionals
are required to complete the project.

The problem with this is that the people appointed to develop such a
credential system would be E.E.s and people with their M.A. in education.

I don't have an answer.  It's just that his topic really causes me grief.
It's just that I thought that after four years of grueling study in
computer science that I'd be working in a REAL professional environment.

Right.
-- 
rich@jpl-devvax.Jpl.Nasa.Gov