Modern Software Engineering

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1. skydhashMar 2026
   My preferred definition of software engineering is found in the first chapter of Modern Software Engineering by David Farley

     Software engineering is the application of an empirical, scientific approach to finding efficient, economic solutions to practical problems in software.
   

   As for the practitioner, he said that they:

     …must become experts at learning and experts at managing complexity
   

   For the learning part, that means

     Iteration
     Feedback
     Incrementalism
     Experimentation
     Empiricism
   

   For the complexity part, that means

     Modularity
     Cohesion
     Separation of Concerns
     Abstraction
     Loose Coupling
   

   Anyone that advocates for agentic engineering has been very silent about the above points. Even for the very first definition, it seems that we’re no longer seeking to solve practical problems, nor proposing economical solutions for them.
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2. vydraOct 2025
   Its definitely much harder to get into the industry than it was a few years ago and if its coding you were after, you may indeed be disappointed. But give Software Engineering a try! We need to rewrite many of our critical systems and we are afraid to do so primarily to the lack of truly skilled software engineers. IMHO, the AI agents are creating time for us to study what really matters. I would start with Modern Software Engineering by Dave Farley. DM me directly if you want to chat on this topic. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dvydra/
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3. upghostSep 2025
   I liked this article because I think it is a fairly charitable "strongman" take of the "pure" engineering camp from someone who identifies with the other camp.

   That being said, there is an objective way out of this trap emdash check out Dave Farley's work on Modern Software Engineering [1].

   It is a very clever approach to convert the process of software delivery into a software problem itself, with a minimal criteria of shipping new code safely every 24 hours.

   When your "pure" engineers optimize around that, the distinction between your "pure" and "practical" devs tends to be pretty small.

   [1]: https://a.co/d/eLvZYcE

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4. SideburnsOfDoomJul 2026
   Dave Farley has done some writing on what makes "Software Engineering" "Engineering"

   e.g. his 2021 book " Modern Software Engineering"

   > Software engineering is the application of an empirical, scientific approach to finding efficient, economic solutions to practical problems in software.

   https://www.davefarley.net/?p=352

   https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/57345270-modern-softw...

   https://productdeveloper.net/modern-software-engineering/

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5. skydhashMay 2025
   From "Modern Software Engineering" by David Farley

   > Software engineering is the application of an empirical, scientific approach to finding efficient, economic solutions to practical problems in software.

   > The adoption of an engineering approach to software development is important for two main reasons. First, software development is always an exercise in discovery and learning, and second, if our aim is to be “efficient” and “economic,” then our ability to learn must be sustainable.

   > This means that we must manage the complexity of the systems that we create in ways that maintain our ability to learn new things and adapt to them.

   That is why I don't care about LLMs per se, but their usage is highly correlated to the wish of the user to not learn anything, just have some answer, even incorrect, as long as it passes the evaluation process (compilation, review, ci tests,..). If the usage is to learn, I don't have anything to say.

   As for efficient and economical solutions that can be found with them,...

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6. skydhashFeb 2025
   I'm currently reading Modern Software Engineering by David Farley and I can say that we won't see programmers replaced unless all the concerns pointed out in this book and others has been resolved.
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