How Software Engineering Differs From Computer Science

cconnell sends in a piece he wrote for Dr. Dobb's which "argues that software development will never be a fully formal, rigorous discipline, and the reason is that software engineering involves humans as central to the process." Quoting: "Software maintainability, for example, is the ability of people to understand, find, and repair defects in a software system. The maintainability of software may be influenced by some formal notions of computer science — perhaps the cyclomatic complexity of the software's control graph. But maintainability crucially involves humans, and their ability to grasp the meaning and intention of source code. The question of whether a particular software system is highly maintainable cannot be answered just by mechanically examining the software. The same is true for safety. Researchers have used some formal methods to learn about a software system's impact on people's health and property. But no discussion of software safety is complete without appeal to the human component of the system under examination."

Comments

Before we get all sweaty about terms

[symbolset]

If you're an X Certified Y Engineer, you're a technician.

If you can be counted on to design a system that reliably works without killing people, you're an engineer.

If you can observe phenomena, reliably document previously unobserved phenomena, and from that produce useful but not mathematically precise practices or products you're a scientist.

If you can gather observed facts into a sheaf of postulates and a system of symbols that can predict unobserved phenomena, you're a mathematician.

If you can't do any of the above, you can always check bags at LAX for $150K a year.

If you can't get bags from the trunk to the belt, you might consider a position in middle management.

Compare and contrast Comp Sci & Comp Eng

[play_in_traffic]

One is not engineering. The other is not science.

Analogy?

[siloko]

Think aeronautics. The science of aeronautics ponders the laws of aerodynamics and the laws of flight.
Engineering aeronautics is all about building the damn aircraft.

I'm struggling to see how aeronautics and aircraft have anything to do with cars.

Re:Analogy?

[beelsebob]

Look at the wings on any fast car, and you'll see.

Not my fault.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not my fault the guy wandered into the thread at the precise moment I was pointing at the door warning "We're about to be invaded by rabid loons". If he wants to self-identify that way, that's funny.

But it's a nice day. Rather than sit here and argue about it I think I'll put my dog in the boat and tease some fish for a while.

/And yes, this is off topic. Thanks for noticing.