Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill Bumface
the amount that are stamping anything meaningful are a small minority.
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Stamping drawings is only one part of practice though. I'm a P.Eng and have literally never stamped anything, not once. I'm non-practicing now, but definitely practiced engineering by the definition previously (eg I have a patent). One example is I worked on the Fire and Explosion Hazard Management process for the completions group at an O&G company I worked for - writing the training manual, delivered training, and in charge of the hazard management process. A previous failure of that process (before my time but still) at that company had resulted in the death of a worker on a service rig. That pre-work checklist didn't have my stamp on it but it was absolutely important that it was done to a professional standard of work.
Imo software can have similar consequences. My (pretty regular) vehicle has a number of self-driving software features. One of them failing has similar consequences. Software for medical devices and airplanes are pretty high stakes as well. Even the software that runs the smart lock on my front door is hopefully well designed given the safety of my family depends on it.
I think its reasonable that professional oversight exist for software engineers. Whether APEGA is doing a good job is, imo, a separate discussion. If they aren't qualified or are doing it poorly then the answer isn't "engineering titles for everyone" it's "APEGA needs these changes".
A proper discussion around what is and is not software engineering seems like a good idea, and anyone who isn't doing that can have the title "software developer" or similar.