I found this picture on the web. The OP didn't know where it came from so I have no attribution. It speaks volumes to the gap between knowing and doing. The notion of knowing and doing is at the heart of Engineered solutions to complex problems, versus created solutions. Of course engineered solutions are created - in that creativity is mandatory for the engineered solution to provide the needed capabilities the customer ordered. But the engineered aspects are the framework in which that creativity is performed.
But the inverse may not be true. Engineering is a broad term.
Engineering (from Latin ingenium, meaning "cleverness" and ingeniare, meaning "to contrive, devise") is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge in order to invent, design, build, maintain, research, and improve structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes.
Software Engineering is not always stand alone, but might be considered part of Systems Engineering. Software in many cases is embedded in a physical object used by people or other physical objects. Or embedded in a physical processes used by people. These objects are systems and maybe even System of Systems.
Systems Engineering is an interdisciplinary field of engineering that focuses on how to design and manage complex engineering projects over their life cycles. Issues such as reliability, logistics, coordination of different teams (requirements management), evaluation measurements, and other disciplines become more difficult when dealing with large or complex projects. Systems engineering deals with work-processes, optimization methods, and risk management tools in such projects. It overlaps technical and human-centered disciplines such as control engineering, industrial engineering, organizational studies, and project management. Systems engineering ensures that all likely aspects of a project or system are considered, and integrated into a whole.
Coding software, in the absence of Computer Science or Software Engineering, is not likely part of any engineering discipline, but is a skill of turns ideas into code.
Software Engineering is
The study and an application of engineering to the design, development, and maintenance of software. Typical formal definitions of software engineering are: the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software.
So If You're in the Engineered Solutions Business...
If you're in the engineered solutions business, systems engineering, software engineering, business process engineering, would the picture at the top be considered credible by your customers, your professors in college, your business development team, your board of directors?
The picture at the top says several things:
- You've not likely done a project like this before. Why would someone give you money for you to learn now? (Remember we're engineering the solution, not conducting research).
- You were not paying attention in that probability and statistics class in college (engineering or computer science) when the prof explained all elements of projects are random variables.
- You've come to believe that the externalities of microeconomics of software development are not applicable to your project.
- You're a sole proprietor with tons of money and don't really care how much it costs, when you'll be done, or what you get when you're done. You just want to produce something meaningful to you.
The picture at the bottom says several things:
- You have experience in the development of systems like this and know that uncertainty creates risk, and risk management is how adults manage projects.
- You actually know how to apply probability and statistics, have used Bayesian forecasting - not just tossed the word around, but applied actual math - to forecast a probabilistic outcome from your past experiences.
- You paid attention in that engineering principles class where they taught you how to move forward in the design and development process with incremental outcomes. Yes this incremental development is the basis of all good engineering practices. The Big Design Up Front straw man went away 40 years ago.
Here's some background on this topic
