[sidlls]

The kind of licensing here would (or should) provide significant negative consequences for malpractice, possibly including revocation or suspension of the license (and therefore prohibition of working on projects requiring licensed engineers) and even civil or criminal penalties. It also carries credibility and protection: a licensed engineer has a duty to report employers' attempts to circumvent rules like Equifax hypothetically would have done, and legal protection for his livelihood when he does so.

It may not prevent truly unscrupulous or spineless engineers from capitulating, but it's better than the current situation.

[nrhk]

Or you know punish the managers for once instead of the footsoldiers...

When Wells Fargo had their credit scandal the salesmen shouldn't have been punished, their managers should've.

These things start at the top. When deadlines are pushed onto you, you don't have time to write unit tests, refactor, update dependencies.

[sidlls]

Licensing empowers the engineer to refuse to do something that violates sound engineering practice according to the license and have legal recourse against retaliation.

It isn't perfect, and the imbalance of power will certainly still be an issue. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.

[camus2]

> Licensing empowers the engineer to refuse to do something that violates sound engineering practice according to the license and have legal recourse against retaliation.

It would just put most legal liabilities on engineers vs the org. It's a great way to protect management, that's the only thing it's going to do. That's exactly how dumb traders end up being scapegoated with each financial scandal. Any engineer who would dare report any wrong doing would be blacklisted for life from the IT industry.

Business like Equifax already have legal requirements at the org level, let's not shift all responsibility onto engineers.