In early 2008 I came across two views put forth in the SEN November 2003 issue on the distinction between Software Engineering (SE) and Computer Science (CS). I originally held one view, but now I have come to think that the other is, if not more correct, at least more useful for the advancement of SE as a profession. To help me understand why I changed my view, I wrote a rather long essay (available from my home page). This is a distillation of one of my main points-I have been involved in both CS and SE programmes, and my change in The two views were put forth by a letter to SEN by Bill Griswold, and a response by Peter Henderson in the SEEd column. Bill's view (which was a response to a proposal for an SE curriculum), was that CS is Engineering, based on the observation that much of what is associated with CS involves the construction of artifacts. He felt that SE was a subdiscipline of CS, and questioned whether making any distinction was of benefit for the development of the respective fields, in research and in teaching.

The other view was by Peter Henderson, presented in his SEEd column in response to Bill's letter. Peter felt that there was a difference between CS and SE just as there is a difference between science and engineering. He felt that many graduates of CS programs don't have an" engineering mindset", and did not think that most CS programmes produced this mindset. I spent 11 years teaching in a fairly standard CS programme, where SE was a part of CS and I had no reason to think otherwise. I had seen discussions relating Software Engineering to engineering, thought I understood what they meant-and still thought SE was part of CS, that is, I agreed wholeheartedly with Bill.