[tim_h]

In software engineering the "thinking beforehand" approach is probably riskier than the "think as you go" approach. For example, often the requirements aren't well-defined when the project starts.

Contrast this with physical-stuff engineering (which I think is what you're referring to by saying "engineering background"), where the requirements tend to be better-defined and the cost of experimentation/refactoring is a lot higher.

[bwarp]

Well electrical engineering turned out to be 50% software (much to my dismay) so I'd say it was right between tangible and non-tangible engineering.