[prog] State of software engineering profession

[Jimen Ching]

Jenny, Robert,

I think you guys still haven't fully understand my point.  ;-)

Of course every profession is unique.  Of course no profession is perfect.
Even the medical and legal professions make mistakes.  My point wasn't
that our profession isn't perfect.  My point is that we can't seem to get
beyond our mistakes.  I think you two kind of proved my point.  You guys
have been enumerating every possible excuse for the state of our
profession.  This is not the point, my 'real' point is that we seem to
accept _excuses_ for every problem we have.

Every industry has standards.  The difference is, everyone else follow
theirs, but we seem to consider our standards as some obstacle we need to
overcome.  We have lots of standards.  The problem is that we don't follow
them because it constrains our artistic selves.  Not only do we not follow
them, but we consider the lack of conformance to be acceptable practice.

This, is the point I'm trying to make...

--jc

P.S.  I don't accept the idea that software applications are broken
because the industry is not mature enough.  It is broken because of poor
design, poor implementation, or poor testing, or all three.  Even today,
you can find poorly designed and constructed cars.  But no one will accept
any excuses for it.  How old must an industry be before we stop accepting
poor quality as a standard?  And accepting excuses as a pass-time?

--
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)        jching at flex.com         wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org