TITLE: The Lumbering Lethargy of Software Engineering
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: February 19, 2013  3:36 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
Graham Lee makes an ironic observation in
<A HREF="http://blog.securemacprogramming.com/?p=712">
   Does the history of making software exist?</A>:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
"[S]oftware engineering" ... was introduced to suggest a
professionalism beyond the craft discipline that went before
it, only to become a symbol of lumbering lethargy among
adherents of the craft discipline that came after it.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

It's funny how terms evolve and communities develop sometimes.

There are a lot of valuable lessons to be learned from the
discipline of software engineering.  As a mindset, it can
shape how we build systems with good results.  Taken too far,
it can be a mindset can stifles and overloads the process of
making software.

As a university professor, I have to walk a fine line, exposing
students to the valuable lessons without turning the creation
of software into a lethargic, lumbering process.  My courses
tend to look different from similar courses taught by software
engineering profs.  I presume that they feel different to
students.

As a programmer, I walk a fine line, too, trying to learn
valuable lessons from wherever I can.  Often that's from the
software engineering community.  But I don't want to fall into
a mindset where the process becomes more important than the
result.
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