A professional has an obligation to a code of professional ethics that supercedes loyalty to their employer. Nothing of the sort exists in software.
A professional can still be a mere subordinate who just follows orders.
I don't know why it's so poulpular to conflate the word engineer and developer to the point where simonw decided to drop the most important word "software" and started calling AI assisted software development "agentic engineering" which is the most absurd oxymoron you can come up with.
The person prompting for code is delegating the majority of decision making to the AI. This is the antithesis of engineering. Hence the operator cannot be the "engineer", at best the AI can be the "engineer", if it is smart enough.
The word engineering implies a task with trade offs, guarantees and expectations about the finished product. The vast majority of software isn't important enough to even know what the specifications are or what features it should have ahead of time. You throw something at the wall and see what sticks. "Agentic engineering" just accelerates the process of throwing things onto the market.
Then there is the fact that "engineering" has become a euphemism for software and nothing else. Anything physical is excluded from the start.
Finally "agentic engineering" implies that you're engineering the agent, but you're not doing that either. You're just a user who set up a sandbox and is letting the AI loose.
The title 'software developer' is correct. We are not engineers and we are not professionals. Pretending otherwise is a grasp for unearned status.
Any paperwork certifying this is just a label and external anchor. In essence, it starts from within.
A software engineer is not so lucky.
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What is a profession?
Some skilled jobs are called professions, and this special label indicates that they are more than merely jobs. The professions involve a special set of services to society, and people who join these professions are expected to uphold high ethical standards in their professional conduct.
Although many professionals have their own private businesses, and many others are employed by businesses, these occupations are misunderstood if we equate them with businesses. In fact, the growing tendency to treat professional work as nothing more than a paid jobs is the source of many ethical challenges.
- The primary goal of a business is to make a profit for the owners, and it does this by providing some product or service to customers.
- The basic purpose of a profession is to provide a service to the community. Here, the primary goal is societal well-being, not profit.
This distinction reflects a higher level of responsibility, expertise, and commitment to maintaining standards that sets professions apart from other occupations.