Even in places that license software engineers (I don't think a PE exam existed for software until 2012, but I may be mistaken) there's really no incentive to get one because companies by and large don't care (there are a few that might, though, like aviation or medical).
The barrier to entry is so much lower that, if you're a bad actor, it's not that difficult to find someone who will be willing to do your dirty work for money. In a traditional engineering discipline such as civil engineering, teams of engineers work on a project that requires millions of dollars to construct, with many reviews by other engineers and overseen by more people.īut all it takes to make software is a computer. In addition to facing potential legal and financial consequences for their actions.īut we don't have mandatory licensing in software and I honestly struggle with how we would even implement that. In engineering disciplines that require licenses from the relevant government or professional bodies, breaching the ethical codes can result in you, or whoever signed for your work, losing their license and thus being unable to work (or at the very least they'd have to work under another engineer). The problem is enforcing breaches of the code. Most engineering disciplines have this, and they take it very, very seriously.
We need an engineering code of conduct.
