It helps clarify to what standards software is supposed to adhere. As the author points out, the key feature of engineering is building to specification. Engineers have formal processes, standards, fault tolerances and expectations.
The people who write software for a space-shuttle do engineering work, your average app store app is likely not 'engineered'.
I think it matters because it says a lot about how seriously the software industry as a whole takes the quality of its products and to what standards we hold software and with what goals in mind we make software. If we treated software like engineers treat aircrafts we'd likely have a lot less of it, but what we had would probably not crash that often.
The debate is tied to the debate about why so much software today feels so terrible and bloated and that makes it relatively important in my opinion.
The people who write software for a space-shuttle do engineering work, your average app store app is likely not 'engineered'.
I think it matters because it says a lot about how seriously the software industry as a whole takes the quality of its products and to what standards we hold software and with what goals in mind we make software. If we treated software like engineers treat aircrafts we'd likely have a lot less of it, but what we had would probably not crash that often.
The debate is tied to the debate about why so much software today feels so terrible and bloated and that makes it relatively important in my opinion.