The Right Questions

Software development as it's commonly practiced today doesn't look much like engineering, but it could. Once we stop asking the wrong question "What is software development currently?" and start asking the right question "Should professional software development be engineering?" we can start answering the really interesting questions. What is software engineering's core body of knowledge? What needs to be done before professional software developers can use that knowledge? How big is the payback from practicing software development as an engineering discipline? What are appropriate standards of professional conduct for software developers? For software organizations? Should software developers be regulated? If so, to what extent? And, perhaps the most interesting question of all: What will the software industry look like after all these questions have been answered?