

What I admire about professions like Engineering and Medicine - hhm
http://weblog.raganwald.com/2008/01/what-i-admire-about-professions-like.html

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codewhisperer
It's worth noting that the professional engineer or doctor is as much an ideal
as the professional computer programmer. Doctors actually don't wash their
hands as often as they know they should
(<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/magazine/24wwln_freak.html>). Engineering
failures occur with sufficient frequency to merit a civil engineering dailywtf
(<http://www.icivilengineer.com/Failure_Watch/>), though thankfully not
updated daily.

This is not to say that the failure of those professions to live up to their
ideal should excuse us. We equally have a responsibility to the quality of our
code. The solution is nothing so easy as an unread code of ethics or a well-
it's-just-money justification for sloppiness. A lot of code actually does risk
lives -- fly by wire systems, automated storm dams, anything in a nuclear
power plant. The risking of lives isn't sufficient to make surgeons follow
well known infection prevention protocols. For them as for us there have to be
cultural changes which value slow and steady repeatable processes over
wunderkind acts of brilliance.

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vitaminj
Engineers and doctors are driven to abide a code of ethics because they don't
want to kill people. If there was software which was safety critical (maybe
NASA code), then I'm sure that the developers would have the same kind of
ethics.

I'm a power systems engineer involved in designing offshore oil and gas
facilities. We frequently have to shoot down dangerous hare-brained schemes
from clients who want to save a little cash. Thank god for the national
standards though, they usually back us up. Which is another thing - failure to
adhere to standards is a legal offence (especially if the oil rig explodes).

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bayareaguy
_Engineers have a certain line that they will not, cannot cross. Doctors work
the same way._

While the romantic in me would like to believe this, there are too many
counterexamples out there for me to just accept this generalization.

When software engineers fail the results often are not visible or
comprehensible to ordinary people but when those professions screw up the
results are dramatic. As a consequence they have to take extra steps (like
always letting everyone know about these codes of ethics) to maintain trust.

