Comment by Betelbuddy
3 days ago
Your comment completely misses the point of my question. Those countries are regulating the title not the profession.
Here is the difference: the Doctors have a liability for their medical practice, the real Engineers meaning those doing Bridges and Buildings that can kill thousands of people if they fall, have a professional obligation and responsability on the outcomes of their designs and implementation.
I can guarantee you, no Software Engineer from Portugal to Germany will be willing to guarantee the behavior and fitness for purpose, of any System or Software product they develop :-) As you very well can see, if you bother to read the full details on the Software License disclaimers of any software from any large company. From Microsoft to Oracle, IBM and others.
As such those are Software Engineers on title only, what is convenient to be hired for post within Government and similar...
> no Software Engineer from Portugal to Germany will be willing to guarantee the behavior and fitness for purpose, of any System or Software product they develop
Then they shouldn't call themselves engineers.
It's not really a big deal and I don't understand the confusion around this.
>> Then they shouldn't call themselves engineers
That is the whole point. :-) Real Software Engineers do not exist other than in title. Some institutions and governments are arbitraging those who can use the title...
That is the thing software can kill, or destroy lives in presence of bugs.
Again, sign any legal documents as engineer, and a court visit might turn into reality.
If Oracle, IBM or Microsoft after 50 years, and employing thousands of Software Engineers ...include the standard disclaimers on their Software, I dont think those in title only should make much fuss of the Software Engineer badge...
Only because so far they haven't been called into court as much as they should.
Thankfully stuff like Crowdstrike and Cloudflare are making governments pay attention to industry losses caused by malpractice.
Then maybe you shouldn't be allowed to rely on such software not causing utter carnage when you're implementing some infrastructure thing via software?
Also note that such warranty disclaiming "fitness for any purpose" is not possible if you sell for money software that you say is for such an infrastructure situation, at least in e.g. Germany. That's not from the license but from the sale though.