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Software Engineering is a licensed profession in several countries.

In Portugal I cannot sign a legally bound countract with Eng. SoAndSo withouth having been licensed to do so.

Naturally plenty of people without such duties never do the final exam, however the universities where they studied had to be certified by enginnering order anyway.

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I don't think I've have ever met a software engineer in Portugal that is on the "Ordem de Engenheiros". It's far more common, because indeed they're legally bound, with civil engineers, material engineers and such.

That may also be true for some areas, but you can def. sign a contract for software development with just a generic business license.

There are certainly creative ways to sign the contract in order to avoid that requirement, after all we belong to the European nations that tend to be creative when it is time to comply with the law.

For example, I knew some consulting shops that had one poor soul that signed all contracts and hoped for the best.

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