🚀 go-pugleaf

(Apologies, I lost the attributions to previous authors....)

	If New Jersey legislators want to license programmers and thus lose
the bulk of their software people, I'd say they weren't thinking straight.
This seems to be a common reaction about legislators in general. 1/2 :-)
If they want to license *computer software professionals* to practice
their trade as lead engineers, then it's about flipping time!!

	From what I understand of the professional licensing in other
industries, licensing comes into play when public safety comes into play --
this means that everyone can be assured that it's a technically competent
person saying, "Yes this will fly, and I'm staking my reputation and a
chunk of my career on it by being *responsible* for it".

	Needless to say, I want licensing of computer professionals;
I will license under the ICCP program set up by the IEEE and ACM and other
computer societies created for this purpose.  If this field is going to be
an ENGINEERING discipline, it's got to be treated as such.  The licensing
must denote responsibility, so that we DON'T have some non-technically-trained
non-responsible bureaucrat making technical decisions and overruling us
technical experts in our fields.


>> And what about companies in
>> financial trouble trying to get a product out the door as cheaply as
>> possible?

	Depends.  Are they in the wrong market?  Are they on the leading
edge while learning sound engineering techniques, both software and managerial?
Are they dependent on one product, and happen to be gearing up for the next
product line?  Or are they out for the fast buck, like quack doctors and
bogus contractors?


>> There are no minimal standards that these companies nor
>> individuals have to follow

	Which is why the production of software is still being treated
as a CRAFT, not a PROFESSION -- there's no P.E.-equivalent in the industry.
Some reasonable standard engineering practices, like having overall design
documents approved by a responsible individual, are necessary at a certain
level of effort.  This is the point in the "established" professions that
the P.E. comes in, or the equivalent title in other fields.  My father
studied, did industry work for a few years, took an MS, and licensed as
an architect.  He has been recognized by three state and his profession that
he is competent to design and oversee design of buildings which affect the
public safety.  I am planning parallel steps myself -- to be professional
is to be responsible.


>Test programs, not programmers.

	AMEN.  And license those who are willing to put their money where
their mouths are.  Treat software professionals as PROFESSIONALS, and hold
them to professional standards.

		Joseph Beckenbach
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Joseph Beckenbach	jerbil@ultra.com	408-922-0100 x246