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Designing, developing and maintaining software systems is most definitely a form of ‘real’ engineering, and should be referred to as such. Qualified software engineers have gained their qualifications in the field through various pathways including tertiary study and professional accreditation, which are rigorous. Not all forms of engineering are regulated, because they don’t need to be.

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What many neglect as well is that in many cases, software is regulated. I’ve worked on software where there were real laws about how and what I could produce, how the data must be managed and where, and what degree of quality and testing must be maintained.

I had to write an oath to my province to execute on that faithfully. I was working with private health records. I know lives weren’t at risk, but it took a lot of knowledge and resources to execute on that properly, and maintaining quality and privacy around those systems is genuinely very important.

I don’t call myself an engineer, but I don’t think my job is a joke either.

Not to mention there is plenty of software which does put lives at risk. Aviation, medical, financial etc... And if it's not lives, it's huge amounts of capital.

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