Tom DeMarco on Software Engineering

[Daryl Kulak]

Hi,

Tom DeMarco, co-founder of structured analysis and design way back in the 1970s, says he got it all wrong the first time around.

In fact, he even says that we should stop seeing ourselves as "software engineers" period. Too limiting.

Here is Tom's article "Software Engineering: An Idea Whose Time Has Come and Gone?" (thanks to Ning member Jeanne Baker):

http://www2.computer.org/cms/Computer.org/ComputingNow/homepage/200...


I love this article because it succinctly says what we emphasize in this book. Also, I love it because it drives home a point in an article I wrote two years ago called "Let's Bury the Term Software Engineering:"

http://www.agilejournal.com/content/view/696/65/

I feel that thinking of everything we do as "engineering" gets us in a mindset of engineering teams of people and our processes, which is going overboard with the mechanical model.

I even invited Tom to participate in our Ning group, but he declined. He did offer to possibly write a blurb once the book is done, so that is great if we can get that to happen.