Ask HN: Is it time for software engineering to be a licensed job? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is it time for software engineering to be a licensed job?

5 pointstech-mega9 comments

In our society, any job or task in which you can be a serious threat to a person requires first obtaining a license that is easily revoked if you ever engage in shady practices. Doctors, teachers, lawyers, electricians, and even driving are notorious examples.

Most software engineers don't work in projects that could be considered dangerous to society when misused, but those who work at global tech like Meta and Google easily fall into this box.

Given how often these companies show complete disregard to society and how more powerful they're getting with every passing day, is it time to regulate the field of software engineering?

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Do you mean licensing as in a structural engineer must be licensed and bonded before approving (and accepting liability) for a structure, or licensing as in “we have to have purity in our profession and only the right people should be software engineers” ala the 1000 hours it takes to get a cosmetology license in my state (NY)?

> Given how often these companies show complete disregard to society and how more powerful they're getting with every passing day, is it time to regulate the field of software engineering?

How would licensing individuals stop companies so called disregard to society?

Individual accountability. If something like 'git blame' shows you're responsible for a 'dark pattern' then you have your license revoked and are blacklisted industry wide.

Companies like Facebook are only made up of individual people, armies fall one soldier at a time.

(fwiw though I don't agree that regulation would be a good idea)

software devs work for companies, so it's the company that should hold liability, not the individual.

> Given how often these companies show complete disregard to society and how more powerful they're getting with every passing day, is it time to regulate the field of software engineering?

A fair point, but licensing individual sw engs doesn't address that at all

I think you are mixing the levels of abstraction here.

* Physicians apply the scientific method to medicine

* Electricians apply construction techniques to electrical construction

* Lawyers apply logic and reason to legal problems for a certain region

* Medical device software manufacturers apply software engineering to medical devices

The regulation should be done at the application of software engineering to X industry. The FDA for example, regulates the application of software engineering to the medical device industry.

Well Said Besides who is going to take on the task of a never changing test, like when colleges tried to test software acquired knowledge, and the languages just kept evolving from pascal, to basic to c/c++ to rust and let's not forget forth and brainfuck.

Yes. Software engineering is just a tool. The risk to society comes when the application of the tool can cause harm. Quantifying and publishing standards to control these risk is best left to experts in the field of application to figure out and should be mostly agnostic of the underlying software engineering paradigm of the day. For example, FDA guidance on software did not need to be updated for over a decade.

"Fake it till you make it" can work well for a consumer product but look what happened when Theranos tried to apply the same paradigm to medicine. It is not software engineering at fault. It is the application.

probably not, but what needs to be dealt with is abuse of engineers in the workplace and prospective candidates. leetcode style interviews and any other interview style designed to wear out the candidate such that he will take any shitty offer should be illegal. compensation packages should be public. all of this can be resolved via unions.

As for me, i'd rather to certify the product. Not the person.

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