[lug] software engineering

[David Morris]

On Mon, Nov 13, 2006 at 05:32:43PM -0700, Bear Giles wrote:
> The levels where it starts getting difficult?... they're
> management, not engineering. Don't get me wrong, it's
> usually still people on the engineering side of the house,
> but when you're trying to make sure 14 teams are all
> working on the same problem that's a management issue, not
> something you solve with your grandfather's slide rule.

At the risk of going back to prehistory I'm so far behind in
reading my email........

The concept you're striving for here is Systems Engineering,
a field newer than even software engineering.  At least as
an official engineering discipline, people have *done* it
for quite some time with varying degrees of success.

In short, the traditional engineer is focused primarily on
how something should be done, while a systems engineer
focuses more on the question of why.

In the field of Aerospace (where I work), this is a vital
role because of the need to get everything right the first
time in an extremely complex system.  Aerospace companies
are still working out how systems engineering works into the
mix and just finding out that its a good role to have around
on small scale projects as well as large.  I've worked on
projects with good systems engineering support and others
with next to none and the difference it makes is
astronomical (sometimes literally, in this industry! ;)

I'm not certain how much systems engineering (as an official
position on the project) has been adopted in the commercial
software industry, but I haven't heard much about it.  I
imagine that as time goes on we'll see an increase in this
role and a direct increase in software quality along with
it.

--David