On Tue, Feb 16, 2010 at 1:12 PM, Alex Chamberlain <apchamberl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm much more interested in seeing some kind of mandatory licensing > based on competence for software engineers. Anyone who has worked in Funny you should mention it, but in NC advertising the term "engineer" is restricted to those who are licensed. In fact, one of the duties of my Professional Engineer license (which is currently inactive, I feel obliged to mention :) is to turn in anyone who is not licensed and uses the term. I once drafted a letter citing one day's numerous Craigslist postings of MCS"Engineer"s and "software engineers", but didn't follow through. It seems to me that the PE licensing folks have done a reasonable job trying to incorporate computer engineering items into the license, or at least when I took the FE and PE in 2006 (2005?) there were a number of computer-specific things on the EE and general exams. However, I don't know if any current Computer Science curriculum would be adequate to train folks in the comprehensive questions, and I don't think the licensing board would be willing to overlook the knowledge deficiency. In any case, someone working as an "engineer" whose work affects the health and safety of the public - which I think would necessarily apply to an automotive programmer (but maybe not contractors?) - should already be required to be registered by the statutes in NC and presumably in most other places. I work in networking and could make a good argument for network equipment carrying similar weight, especially in medical applications, but of the 80+ people at my site only two of us have PEs, and neither of us is a system programmer. > high-tech knows that the majority of programmers are barely competent, True that. On the other hand licensure does not necessarily imply competence, or at least any greater than "barely". It does indicate that the licensee has agreed to uphold the health and well-being of the public (at least in the NC PE case) so that is arguably better than someone who is willing to disregard the same. This, BTW, is why I don't work in construction. :) > and that there are no accepted or enforced standards for testing their A handful of standard software testing methods are accepted, but I don't know of -any- company with effective enforcement. -Tim _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
