Only after such standards are established and *proven effective* is there any utility in enforcing the standards upon the practitioners.
Software is *not* yet at that stage.
As much as I like the bridge metaphor -- which is why I used it on the cover of my Secure Coding book (and then O'Reilly trademarked it) -- I have to agree with Crispin on this point. The software world is not ready for the same sorts of rigorous standards that are applied to (many) other Engineering disciplines. (For that reason, I generally avoid the term "Software Engineer".) Perhaps it will get there some day, but not today. IMHO...
Cheers,
Ken van Wyk KRvW Associates, LLC http://www.KRvW.com
