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Comment by UK-AL | Hacker News Reader

Civil engineering and software engineering are fundamentally different because software is digital.

You can't download the building package. You actually have to build the building again. If it's the same building I would expect them reuse the same blueprints. So that holds true.

Where as in software it's quite easy and desirable to reuse software. Which is why you should not be rewriting the same thing over and over.

As a result, the problems you face are unique. Your not just stamping out the same building again and again.

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> You actually have to build the building again.

You also have to factor engineering time into the plan. If you read Industrial Megaprojects, the author shows that projects which don't do a bit of upfront estimating and research tend to go off the rails on a scale that software struggles to match.

Some upfront planning is required but, there is an overall problem with comparing software to building construction.

If you make a blueprint and give it to 2 construction companies to build the building, you'll end up with 2 very similar buildings.

If you give a software spec to 2 separate software companies you'll get 2 completely different programs.

You can't create a blueprint/spec that is sufficiently detailed so that 2 different companies/teams will build essential the same software.

A blueprint/spec that detailed would be the code itself.

The closest analog to software would be designing processes, or maybe designing a factory or assembly line. And the analog to the code in that situation would be the factory or assembly line itself.

Software shouldn't be compared to building construction, more appropriately compared to building design. Building construction is analogous to software deployment: a largely solved problem that is predictable.

I've actually managed to draw myself away from the point I was making, which is not about the relative structures of professions.

It's that professionals perform similar tasks very often. Including us.

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