What does software engineering mean to me?
Software engineering to me is ‘something more’ than just producing code.
I suppose something more can also be called architecture and habits that change the work from just producing code to an engineering practice also belong to the ‘something more’ category.
I want to put on paper what software engineering means to me.
- To look at which ideas inspired me. And how do they influenced my view
- Which definition did I adopt?
To start, I draw much of my inspiration these last years from Dave Farley. Many of the ideas he talks about are not necessarily new. By listening to his talks and his discussions with industry professionals1 a broader more connected picture of what it is and what are well performing practices2 started to grow in my brain.
I’ve recently started reading in his book3. In the preface he claims the terms below are the terms we should use when we think of software engineering.
Software engineering is the application of an empirical, scientific approach to find efficient, economic solutions to practical problems in software.
I hope to understand and explain in more depth what that means once I finish reading the book.
Footnotes
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In his podcast the Engineering Room. A favorite is: The Myth of the 10x engineer | Charity Majors ↩
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The result of four years of research on what drives software delivery performance Accelerate: Building and Scaling High Performing Technology Organizations ↩
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Modern Software Engineering: Doing what works to build better software faster, Dave Farley ↩