Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!ukma!psuvm.bitnet!uh2
From: UH2@PSUVM.BITNET (Lee Sailer)
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: What exactly is a software engineer ?
Message-ID: <89136.125040UH2@PSUVM>
Date: 16 May 89 16:50:40 GMT
References: <497@dekalb.UUCP>
Organization: Penn State University - Center for Academic Computing
Lines: 24

In article <497@dekalb.UUCP>, brian@dekalb.UUCP (Brian Charlton) says:
>What are the actual degree requirements of software engineers and also
>what are their job definitions ?
>

One thing to keep in mind when trying to answer this question is that
the answer is likely to be very fuzzy, and vary a lot from school to
school and company to company.

But, in brief:  Software engineering is about how to accomplish very large
software projects on time and within budget.  The skills required include
computer programming, algorithm design, and the rest of the usual CS
stuff, but also include project management, cost-accounting, organizational
theory, and so on.

Some schools have started a SE major.  It might be in the School
of Engineering, Arts and Sciences, Industrial Engineering, Management,
Business, or who knows where.

SE is an overlap of CS, Engineering, and Management.  I guess it
evolved as a separate entity for local historical and political reasons.
That is, pure CS people think SE is too applied, Engineers don't think
software is a thing that must be built, and Mangement doesn't have
the technical skills.