Many of us in the IT industry aspire to create a Software Engineering discipline. We work continually to mature our understanding of what it is and should become, and work to increase the external trust of the profession. Are we there yet in relation to other engineering disciplines? Probably not. Whether or not it is there today does not matter as much to me. What matters to me is that at this time we are trying to take it there. My feeling is that Software Engineering is a pursuit, not an endpoint. I also believe software craftsmanship exists, but there is a place for it. I do not want a craftsman designing my antilock brakes, getting creative with my future (hopefully distant) artificial heart, liver or whatever code, or the algorithm for measuring the carbon monoxide levels in my home. I would like an engineer knowledgeable in precedence and predictability to create these things. Denning and Riehle (2009) point out some interesting areas where Software Engineering is weak compared to other disciplines:Predictable outcomes (principle of least surprise)Design metrics, including design to tolerancesFailure tolerancesSeparation of design from implementationReconciliation of conflicting forces and constraintsAdapting to changing environmentsI think an additional challenge we deal with in developing a Software Engineering discipline is that software - code - is unlike any material previously available to us. Add to this the various forms and structures the material can take changes every five to ten years - Java, C#, client/server, web services, hosted, distributed, etc. We are trying to build a stable practice around an unstable material. For example, our environment is beginning an architectural shift toward large multi-core processors. (Merritt, 2008). Our tools, thinking and education may require a refresh to adapt our software design approaches to deal with this change. (See http://clojure.org/state). In short, I believe in Software Engineering. It is out there and we are chasing it down. We make some right and wrong turns along the way. Each time we get a little closer to it, our world of technology changes dramatically and it just slips out of our grasp. The longer we hunt for it, the more mature, disciplined and predictable our profession becomes.ReferencesDenning, P., & Riehle, R. (2009). The Profession of IT: Is Software Engineering Engineering?. Communications of the ACM, 52(3), 24-26.Merritt, R. (2008). CPU designers debate multi-core future. EE Times. Retrieved 24 October 2009 from http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206105179