this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2023
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Systems engineering in the software industry (programming.dev)
submitted 1 year ago by firelizzard@programming.dev to c/experienced_devs@programming.dev
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My last job was at a company that designed and built satellites to order. There was a well defined process for this, and systems engineers were a big part of it. Maybe my experience there is distorting my perspective, but it seems to me that any sufficiently complex project needs to include systems engineering, even if the person doing that is not called a systems engineer. Yet as far as I can tell, it isn't really a thing in the software industry. When I look at job postings and "about us" blog posts about how a company operates, I don't see systems engineering mentioned. Am I just not seeing it, is it called something else, or is the majority of the industry somehow operating without it?

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[–] glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No one said it’s made up, just that we don’t know what it is because it’s a term for big (and maybe hardware-oriented) industries. Most devs will never touch this in their lives.

From your link, it seems that the "software architect" is the closest equivalent. He must have a broad knowledge in a bit of everything from the code to talking with clients in order to make good decisions for everyone, and make sure that a good path is followed by everyone.

Last but not least, this book seems interesting and gives an overview of what I said: https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-Software-Architecture-Comprehensive-Characteristics/dp/1492043451