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I'm a civil engineer (five years) and have never been on a project that avoided the problems of a custom poorly specificied software build.

Civil projects are a constant dialogue between client and engineer - but we get further monkey wrenched by one additional stakeholder that software doesn't have: local and at times federal government review. If you think software dev is difficult now, wait til your code is regulated.

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Software for banking and insurance is like this. The product has to accommodate different rules for all 50 states and federal oversight. Changes to just about anything need to be cleared by the relevant state and federal agencies.

Another big difference between physical engineering and information engineering is that when an overpass is completed, the project is done. If you're lucky, someone will come by and look it over or maintain it over the years. There's no such thing as "done" software. When a program wraps up, everybody rushes back in and starts monkeying with it for the next iteration.

My code is regulated. I develop retail point of sale technology which requires certification with various state agencies such as WIC. Each state likes to do things just a bit differently, which keeps things interesting to say the least.

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