From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.3 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,INVALID_MSGID autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,bdc41aa5ff8e1d93 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public From: "Kevin J. Weise" Subject: Re: Programmers -> Engineers; Engineers -> Programmers Date: 1996/08/08 Message-ID: <4udri5$dmv@michp1.redstone.army.mil>#1/1 X-Deja-AN: 173020775 references: <1996Aug8.115630.4568@relay.nswc.navy.mil> content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii organization: Redstone Arsenal, Alabama mime-version: 1.0 newsgroups: comp.lang.ada x-mailer: Mozilla 1.22 (Windows; I; 16bit) Date: 1996-08-08T00:00:00+00:00 List-Id: jkrell@nswc.navy.mil (James Krell) wrote: >Let's say an organization is developing software for a radar system... >Is it better to take engineers/scientists who understand the system >and teach them how to program? Or is it better to take programmers >and teach them about the radar system? > >Another example.. what if an organization is developing a command >and control system? Is it better to take individuals who know the >tactical and technical aspects of the command and control system >and teach them how to program or is it better to take programmers >and teach them about the command and control system? > Presuming this is an honest, albeit simplistic, query (as opposed to a troll)... I don't have any realistic, hard statistics, but... It has been my experience that most companies will take engineers and make them do programming. Some like it, some don't. I've worked for a few companies like this and hated having to clean up the software messes left by the engineers (many of whom get *very* uptight that anyone would question their bizarre architectures and coding practices). Many engineers (primarily those who give a damn), after living on a serious software project, pick up good software development practices from good software developers(if they are around) and good literature (if they are motivated to look for it). Conversely, many good software developers can pick up the needed background in an engineering field (if they give a damn, if they have an associate who knows the field, if they are motivated,...). *BUT*, with management usually coming from the engineering ranks, a software developer who does a poor engineering job is almost always blamed/punished/rejected whereas an engineer who does a poor software job is rarely noticed. (Probably because those same managers can't determine if the software job was good or not.) (I guess if this was a troll, I fell right in.) Anyhow, IMHO, you need both. If you can get people with good, solid backgrounds in both the desired engineering field and in software engineering, that's great. If you can't, but can settle for being a CMM Level 1 organization, go for the engineers. But, then again, if you need multiple engineers, you really should consider the software part an engineering field as well, and get some software *engineers* (i.e., don't settle for merely code-slingers). --------------------------------------------------------------- Kevin J. Weise email: kweise@sed.redstone.army.mil COLSA Corp. voice: (205) 842-9083 Huntsville, AL ..standard disclaimers apply