Regulated Software Industry

Should the software industry be a regulated profession, in the way that law, medicine, architecture and civil engineering are? If so, what sort of industry standards should there be, and how should they be enforced?

This would be the step that finally takes all power away from the users of computers. The programmability of computers is their greatest value, and it should not be reserved for a chosen few. If computer owners and users are no longer allowed to write their own programs, or to choose others to write programs for them, they will be at the mercy of the few people who have the necessary licenses.

Most software does not present any danger to life, limb, or property, so there is no justification for adding the costs of regulation to the development of all software, or for restricting the freedom of developers and users. Software that does present such dangers (medical, engineering, accounting, aerospace, etc.) is already covered by existing regulations and regulatory bodies.

It is questionable whether regulation of the profession would improve the overall quality of software or reduce its ill effects. Regulation does not necessarily improve quality: lawyers, doctors, architects, and civil engineers make mistakes all the time. Is there any evidence that developers who use government-mandated practices will have fewer bugs in their software?

Regulation would almost certainly raise software prices. Users in need of software would have to hire high-priced Professional Software Developers to write custom apps, or will be forced to buy expensive off-the-shelf programs from a handful of companies. The price increase would put software out of the reach of those who can't afford to buy it and aren't allowed to create it themselves.

Regulation would place unnecessary hurdles in front of those who want to become developers. Many of the best SelfTaught programmers would be kicked out of the industry for not having the right credentials. Becoming a licensed developer would require an expensive education, broadening the DigitalDivide.

Innovation would be stifled. Only the licensed few would be allowed to write any code at all, preventing smart-but-unlicensed people from trying new ideas. Due to regulation, with penalties for writing "bad" code, developers will concentrate on writing "safe" code rather than writing "different" code.

We would all like to see improvements in the software industry, but regulation is not the best answer. What is needed is for software users to be more careful about what they buy, for software developers to be more careful when choosing their employers, and for software development managers to be more careful about who they hire and what is produced.

Yes

Regulation would empower users because they would get superior software as a result and wouldn't have to wade through mountains of dreck to find it.

It would also empower clients since they would no longer have to worry about incompetent programmers who are 30 years behind the state of the art.

Finally, it would empower programmers since people would take programmers seriously instead of demonstrating contempt of them.