Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!uwm.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!halley!joannz From: joannz@halley.UUCP (Joann Zimmerman) Newsgroups: comp.software-eng Subject: Re: Information Systems is an Engineering Discipline Message-ID: <592@halley.UUCP> Date: 25 Sep 89 23:13:08 GMT References: <10743@dasys1.UUCP> <34348@regenmeister.uucp> Distribution: comp.edu Organization: Tandem Computers, Austin, TX Lines: 25 In article <34348@regenmeister.uucp>, chrisp@regenmeister.uucp (Chris Prael) writes: > I suggest that you earn a little bit about the histories of electrical, > electronic, mechanical, civil, chemical, aeronautical, and automotive > engineering. The biggest difference between those fields and computing > is that no where near as many technicians managed to pretend that they > were engineers in any of those fields as have done so in computing. One other very noticeable difference between other engineering fields and computing is in the amount of failure analysis to be found in the field. Did anybody reading this EVER take a course in failure analysis of software? In fact, where's the literature on this? There's all sorts of stuff on how bridges fail, and why buildings do/don't stand up, but there seems to be no real ability to analyze the stress on a software module, or the failure rate of software components. All I've ever seen is the anecdotal evidence (comp.risks and the like) and various platitudes about a quality development process producing quality software. How would we go about developing this into a real engineering discipline? -- "Come, my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a a newer world - " Joann Zimmerman Tandem Computers Austin, TX ...!{rutgers,harvard,gatech,uunet}!cs.texas.edu!halley!joannz